Blade of Light
by Hayner
Summary: When Sora has to choose between the boy he loves and his sister, he feels as if his heart has been ripped in two. Finally, getting fed up with being haunted by his mistake, he once again takes up his keyblade to save the person he loves. RikuxSora.
1. A Far off Memory

**Blade of Light:**** A Far off Memory**

**Started: 4.08.06**

**Finished: 4.15.06**

**Disclaimer:**

I own nothing but the story line. (I no own Kingdom Hearts or Kingdom Hearts 2)

**Author's note:**

w00t! My first fan fiction, and of course it had to be a Riku/Sora pairing. I mean come on, how could you not love them? So, I hope everyone enjoys it; it's going to be all angsty though. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED…ok it probably won't be THAT angsty. But with characters like Riku and Sora, how could it not? Any who…enjoy!

Oh, and this first dream sequence is mainly set in the big room where Sora battles Riku for the first time in Hallow Bastion (in Kingdom Hearts I). The one with the fountain and two staircases that has the 2nd story with the library entrance, just incase you get confused.

**/ Thoughts during dreams/ flashbacks **

' ** Dialogue during dreams/ flashbacks**

**

* * *

**

_Dream sequence_

_Sora ran from room to room, heart pounding._

'_Damn…why does Hallow Bastion have to be so big?' He panted as he ran towards a dark room at the end of the hall. As he entered, he felt a shiver go down his spine; griping his keyblade, he sprinted into the darkness. _

'_Where can they be?' he muttered under his breath, as he approached what seemed to be the middle of the room. Panicking, he struggled to adjust his eyes to the dark._

_Suddenly, the lights came on in one big flare of light; and then he saw them, standing where the top of the two staircases met._

'_Riku, Kairi!' he screamed. As he started to run toward them, he saw that the two hooded figures that were holding Kairi and Riku were also holding some ugly looking daggers. He picked up the pace and started sprinting towards the staircase. Just as he was about to reach it, he hit an invisible barrier._

'_Damn it!' Sora screamed, as he started to beat the barrier with his keyblade, 'LET ME THROUGH!' _

'_Now, now, is that anyway for the key bearer to act? Like an angry little child? You just don't know when to stop, its pathetic really.' Said the third hooded figure, who seemed to be in charge. 'You wouldn't want to look weak in front of the people you love, would you?'_

'_Let them go!' yelled Sora, anger welling up inside of him. 'Let them go, right now!'_

'_Hmm…that sounds like an order, and frankly my dear keyblade master, I don't think your in a position to order me around. Have you forgotten that I could end your little friends lives right now?' he turned around and gestured to the other two figures in hoods, 'bring them forward!'_

_Sora glared up at the hooded figures, as he looked up, he saw the fear in Kairi's eyes. _

_/Kairi…/ _

'_Now, keyblade master, you must choose: your sister, who is the only family you have left, or the boy you love?'_

_/No…/ Sora looked up and saw the surprise in the older boy's eyes/no…Riku, you weren't supposed to know/_

'_Ah, I'm sorry, was that supposed to be a secret?' the hooded figure sneered, 'hurry up and choose, keyblade master! I don't have all day!'_

_/ No… / thought Sora/ I can't choose…and Riku…I wonder what he thinks of me now…/ _

_A certain silver haired boy calling his name interrupted his thoughts._

'_Sora!'_

_Sora lifted his head to meet the shocking blue eyes that he had dreamed about for years._

'_Sora, take Kairi and go!' _

_/ No…I don't want to leave you Riku / _

'_I…I can't' Sora wimpered_

'_Sora, listen to me, take Kairi and get back to Destiny Islands.' Riku flashed a smile at Sora. 'Don't worry about me, I can take these guys'_

'_But…' He was interrupted by a scream from is sister._

'_Sora!' _

_Sora turned to his sister and saw blood running down her neck._

'_Kairi!' Sora screamed. _

'_Oh dear, that does look awful' the hooded figure said maliciously. 'Now, I am a patient man, but I'm starting to tire of this little soap opera. What will it be the boy or your sister?'_

_Sora stood rooted to the spot, his mouth uncomfortably dry. _

_/ I can't choose…I can't leave Riku or Kairi behind… /_

_A soft voice broke his thoughts._

'_Sora, take Kairi.'_

'_But…Riku…'_

'_Go now…quickly, before they hurt her more'_

_Sora nodded and turned to the hooded figure._

'_Have you made your decision keyblade master?' _

'_I choose…I choose my sister…'_

'_Very well,' the hooded figure replied, 'bring her forward!'_

_The hooded figure holding Kairi walked her over to the top of the stairs. He gave her a small shove, and she started descending the stairs. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Sora ran over to her and pulled her into a protective hug._

'_And now keyblade master, I bid you fare well.' _

'_No…wait…'_

_The three black figures turned and started to walk into a dark portal that had appeared behind them, with Riku in tow. _

'_RIKU!' _

_The older boy turned back and gave the brunette one last look before being pushed into the portal._

'_Riku! Noo!' Sora screamed as the darkness engulfed him._

"SORA!" Someone was shaking him, "Sora wake up, your having a bad dream"

The brunette sat up abruptly, sheets tangled around him, struggling to focus his eyes in the morning light coming through his window. Once his eyes had focused, he looked wildly around the room. There was someone sitting on his bed…

"Riku?"

End of "A far off memory"

* * *

** Babbling**

I'm sorry for the cliffhanger, I just couldn't resist. It's a bit short, but think of it as a prelude into the story. I want to thank Chelsea and Ariel for editing because they know I'm hopeless when it comes to English. Leave reviews! … Please? Hope you enjoyed reading!

Till next time,

Hayner


	2. Missing You

**Blade of light: Missing you**

**Started: 4.16.06**

**Finished: 4.23.06  
**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts (or KH2) or any of the characters associated with it…SAD

**Author's Note:**

AH! I'm so sorry for not updating sooner! I had a ton of projects due this week and then I got sick.

Riku: Well, you wouldn't have had SO much work to do if you didn't procrastinate and start them on the night before they were due.

Me: ...

Riku: Will you ever learn?

Me: Shut up!

Well, here we are at the REAL beginning to the story (or something like that). I don't really have much to say, except Happy Easter/ Spring and please leave some reviews! And now…ON WARD WITH TEH CHAPTER!

* * *

"SORA!" Someone was shaking him, "Sora wake up, your having a bad dream" 

The brunette sat up abruptly, sheets tangled around him, struggling to focus his eyes in the morning light coming through his window. Once his eyes had focused, he looked wildly around the room. There was someone sitting on his bed.

"Riku?"

"No…it's me, Kairi."

"Oh" he said quietly, turning his head to look out the window so she wouldn't see the disappointment in his face.

"You had that dream again, didn't you?" she quietly asked him.

He nodded his head, still looking out the window so she wouldn't see his tears. He felt the bed move as she shifted her weight to hug him. After a few minutes, He heard her get up and walk to the door.

"I'm so sorry Sora" he heard her quietly say before shutting the door behind her.

After Kairi had left, Sora allowed the tears he had been holding back to start flowing freely down his cheeks. He felt so rotten, putting Kairi in this situation. It hadn't been her fault that he was forced to choose between her and Riku. He knew that she blamed herself for everything that had happened in the past few months, the move to Twilight Town, the memory of that night constantly haunting him. The memory started to replay its self in his head, the dark room, the hooded figures, Riku's shocking blue eyes…

He shook his head to try and rid himself of the images that flooded into his head.

But the move had been entirely his idea; he just couldn't stand to live in a place filled with so many painful memories. The dock, their raft, the tree where Riku always went to think; it had been slowly eating him up. He had to find a new place to start over, a place where he could work up the courage he needed to face Riku again, not to mention gather as much information about Organization XIII as he could.

"Sora!"

As he lifted his head and saw a small rock hit his window. Wiping his tears, he got out of bed and shuffled over to the window. As he opened the window another rock came soaring in and hit him in the head.

"Hey, that hurt!" he yelled down to the group of boys standing on the street below.

"Sheesh," yelled Hayner, "no need to get angry, we didn't think you'd come to the window that fast!"

"Come on Sora! How can you still be in bed at this hour?" yelled a blond boy, who resembled Sora.

"Yeah Sora! Hurry up, we'll miss the train to the beach!" yelled the brown haired boy named Pence.

"Ok, ok!" Sora yelled down to his friends, "I'll be down in a few minutes."

Closing the window, he quickly pulled on a T-shirt over his bare chest and tried to smooth the wrinkles, which were the outcome of his fight with his sheets, out of his shorts. He quickly brushed a hand through his hair, trying to tidy up the natural spikes in his hair. By the time he made it down stairs, Kairi had let Hayner in.

"Geez, it took you long enough!" Hayner complained as Sora jogged into the kitchen.

"Well, I'm sorry I care about how I look," Sora shot back. "Where did Roxas and Pence go?"

"They went down to the station to buy us tickets," Hayner replied while searching the kitchen for something to eat.

Soar sat down in one of the chairs and finished putting on his shoes.

"Ok, I'm all set" Sora said, standing up and grabbing the apple that Hayner was just about to eat.

Hayner glared at him, as he grabbed another apple from the counter.

"Well, now that 'Miss' Sora is FINALY ready, could we please hurry up and go down to the station?" Hayner whined, "I said that we would meet Olette there 15 minutes ago!"

"Ok, ok," Sora said as he stood up, he looked over at his sister who seemed to be in her own world.

"Are you ready Kairi?" he asked timidly.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, lets go" she said with less liveliness then she usually had.

Sora looked at his sister sadly, he knew that her bad mood was his fault. He was about to say something to comfort her, when Hayner pulled him into a headlock.

"What have you done to upset her this time?" He asked with mock-anger, "Kairi, what can I do to make up for your brother's useless mistake? Maybe, oh, I don't know, me and you, dinner in the shopping district?"

"Hey! Stop hitting on my sister!" Sora yelled; trying to break free of the headlock that Hayner still had him in.

"Hmm…" Kairi said, playing along with Hayner. "How about dinner and a moonlit walk on Sunset Hill? Just the two of us."

"Kairi! Stop hitting on my friends!" Sora whined, still struggling to get free.

"So it's a date?" Hayner asked hopefully.

"Maybe in your dreams," Kairi said ruffling Hayner's hair as she walked by him and out of the kitchen.

Sora smirked as Hayner stood in shock at what had just happened.

"Hey, what are you smirking about!" He asked in a playful tone as Sora finally wriggled free of the headlock.

"Oh, just the fact that you've been trying to get a date with my sister for the last three months and you get shut down every time," Sora said, smiling.

"You better take that back!" Hayner yelled as he playfully started rough housing with Sora.

"Are you guys coming, or not?" They heard Kairi call from the hall, "The trains really going to leave with out us if you don't hurry up!"

The two boys glanced at each other and then started sprinting for the door.

"Last one there buys the Sea Salt ice cream!" Hayner yelled as he and Sora took off down the street with Kairi in tow towards the shopping district.

As they disappeared, a dark portal appeared in the street. A dark hooded figure stepped out and followed them towards the shopping district.

* * *

**Babbling:**

OOOOH, yay! The re appearence of Organization XIII! I just had to add the line about sea salt ice cream, seeing as they are ALWAYS eating it in the 3 hour tutorial. HOO man, I finally beat Kingdom Hearts 2 it last night, it was amazing (although I think it would have been more amazing if I wasn't partially delerious from fever). I would start ranting about it, but I don't wanna spoil anything. Its just godly, and Riku is amazingly sexy and theres an incredably cute cut scene with Axel near the end. It made me cry, and I still was 3 hours away from beating it.

So yeah, I'll update again when I'm feeling better and not feverish (although it might be interesting to see where the plot would go). I totally have a plot all thought out now though, its going to be amazing. Please leave reviews!

Till next time!

Hayner


	3. Sinister Shadows

Blade of Light: Sinister Shadows 

**Date Started: 4.25.06**

**Date Finished: 5.1.06  
**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts or the characters in it.

**Authors Note: **

Ah, the third chapter. I'm sorry for taking so long with updates, but a majority of my time has been spent sleeping, trying to get over this flu bug and trying to make up all the work I missed and then my editor took a while. So, with out further ado, here is the third chapter.

* * *

'_I want to line up the pieces, yours—and mine.'_

Riku awoke cold and aching from sleeping on the hard ground. The voice in his dream still echoing through his head.

'_We pray for our sorrows to end…'_

Shivering he hugged himself for warmth. It had been almost 4 months since he had been thrown in this dungeon, and he still hadn't seen any of the organization members except the red haired one who brought him his food. He didn't know what they wanted with him; all he knew was that they were using him to get to Sora. He felt a tear slide slowly down his cheek, if he missed anything it had to be Sora. His goofy smile, sparkling blue eyes, and the way he pouted when he didn't get what he wanted. Riku smiled at the thought of the younger boy, it made him feel warmer than he had in weeks.

"Hey"

Riku looked up to see the red head standing in the door.

"What are you smiling about?" he asked, "If I was in your position, I definitely wouldn't be smiling"

"Oh, and why is that?" asked Riku, hoping to find out something about their plan.

"Well—hey! Nice try, but I'm not authorized to tell you that" replied the red head. "Any way, I guess you're going to find out soon enough."

"Why?" Riku asked cautiously.

"Because, I've been sent here to collect you and take you to the boss," the red head said, walking over to Riku and casting a binding spell on his wrists.

"The boss?" asked Riku, "why? Finally decided to do something with me instead of leaving me to rot in this dungeon?"

The red head laughed, "I guess you could say that, although, I'd rather sit here in this dungeon then go to the boss."

Grabbing Riku by the arm, he led him out of the dungeon and down a long corridor.

"Now, no funny business," the red head said, as they reached the end of the dungeon corridor and walked through a heavy metal door. "I'm already on probation with the boss."

* * *

"Ok, ok!" Sora gasped as he collapsed at the top of the steps of the train station. "You win!" 

"HA! I totally OWNED you, lamer!" Hayner gloated, as he danced around Sora at the top of the stairs.

"Ah, I guess I'm buying everyone Sea Salt ice cream when we get to the beach." Sora replied, still trying to catch his breath.

"Oh, Sora you lazy bum!" Kairi said as she sat down next to her brother at the top of the stairs, "Since when have you been that slow in a race?"

"Kairi! Don't be mean," Sora whined, as he started his pouting routine, "I'm just tired that's all!"

"Suuuree!" Hayner teased, "I think someone's a sore loser!"

"And I think someone's going to lose their head if they don't hurry up and get in here!" a voice from behind Hayner called.

Hayner, Sora and Kairi turned around to see Olette standing in the door with an angry look on her face.

"Come on! The trains about to leave!"

As the three of them got up and started to go into the station, Sora felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to find himself face to face with a hooded figure.

'_Time is running out, key bearer. The boy you seek is growing weaker and weaker each day. Soon his light will be completely eclipsed by the darkness, and then he will be ours'_

"What! Is Riku in trouble!" Sora yelled at the hooded figure.

"Sora! Hurry up! The trains going to leave!" Hayner yelled.

"Hold on, I'll be right there!"

Sora turned to look at the hooded figure, and found he was staring across the courtyard of the train station. The hooded figure was nowhere to be seen. Confused and scared, he turned and ran into the train station.

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"No, we aren't, will you just chill out for a sec?"

"But we've been wandering around for like, an hour."

The red head pulled Riku down another corridor.

"Do you even know where we are going?" Riku asked, giving the red head a skeptical look as he trudged along beside him.

"Uh…of course!" the red head scoffed, as he looked around. "I just don't know how to get there." He muttered.

'Great…' thought Riku, as he was dragged down yet another corridor.

"Um…excuse me, uh…what's your name?" Riku asked the red head who was muttering to himself as he looked down a corridor to their right.

"Axel," he replied distractedly, as he turned and looked down the corridor to their left.

"Right, Axel, where are we?"

"Well, if I knew that, we wouldn't be lost," he replied haughtily.

"No, I mean, what world is this?"

"Ohhh" Axel said as he turned to Riku with a sparkle in his eye, "this is the World that Never was. A world where heartless and nobodies rule."

"Nobodies?" Riku asked, puzzled.

"Uh-huh," the red head replied as he chose the corridor to their right.

"What are Nobodies?"

"Those who are created from someone turning into a heartless. I expect your friend has a nobody somewhere. Most of the nobodies that are created are just mindless shells that can't think for themselves, but nobodies like the Organization members, were created when someone with a strong heart became a heartless. There for, we are able to live as if we possessed a heart."

"Wait, you said my friend has a nobody?" Riku asked panicking, "Is Sora ok! Did something happen to him?"

"Ha, you must not remember then. But don't worry, your little friend is fine, for now." The red head threw back his head and laughed.

"You better not lay a finger on my Sora, or I'll…" Riku yelled, his anger welling up inside him.

"Oh, YOUR Sora, is he?" the red head smirked at Riku, "it seems that the silver haired brat has a weakness."

"I uh…" Riku stammered, blood rushing to his cheeks.

He was cut off, by a man with blue hair and a scar in the shape of an X on his forehead.

"AXEL! Where have you been! The boss is getting angry!"

"Shit…" the red head muttered. "Ah, I'm sorry Saïx. I got lost, and I…"

"Don't give me any of your dumb excuses," Saïx sneered, "just give the boy to me, and I'll take him to the boss."

"But if I don't show up with him, the boss will know I screwed up again. And then he'll eliminate me." Riku could sense the fear in the red heads words.

"Fine, but I'll escort you there, and don't think that you're off the hook." He glared down at the red head, and for a moment Riku felt sorry for him.

"Phew, thanks a million Saïx!" the red head sighed, "What do I owe you?"

"Oh, I'll think of something," Saïx said unpleasantly, "but now we must hurry and deliver the brat to the boss, he is tired of waiting."

Riku and Axel followed Saïx down a smaller corridor to their left and then to a large white double door.

"Wait here," he growled.

"Is he always that angry?" Asked Riku, as he watched Saïx disappear behind the door.

"Naw, he's kind of an ass when you first meet him, but he's not that bad." Axel whunispered back, "He's just kind of…misunderstood."

Saïx reappeared and motioned for them to come in.

"The boss is ready to see you now," he announced.

Axel nudged Riku in the back and started to pull him forward. As they passed Saïx, Riku heard Axel whisper something to him.

"You didn't say anything about me being lost did you?"

"No"

"Ah, thanks Saïx! You're the best!"

Riku saw Saïx glare at Axel.

"I hope you get your ass handed to you." He sneered, as he turned and walked away.

"See, he's not an ass at all," Axel whispered sarcastically to Riku as they walked through the door.

"Welcome," a voice called from across the room, "I have waited a long time for this."

* * *

"Oh, the ocean is so beautiful!" Olette sighed, temporarily forgetting her anger at the two boys.

The seven friends gazed out the windows as the train neared the station.

"I can't believe that we haven't been to the beach all vacation," Kairi exclaimed, smiling.

"I know!" said Pence, pressing his face against the window. "I can't wait to get one of those pretzels, I've been waiting all year for one!"

"Aww Pence! All you ever think about is food!" Hayner said, turning and giving Pence an exasperated look.

"Give me a break Hayner! I haven't eaten since breakfast!"

"Well, save room for ice cream, because Sora owes us all a Sea Salt ice-cream bar!" Hayner yelled, pulling Sora into a headlock and giving him a noogie.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember." Said Sora, as he ran a hand through his hair and resumed staring into space.

"Aw, your no fun! What happened to your good mood? You too Roxas, why are you guys so quite! HELLO?" Hayner waved a hand in front of Roxas's face.

"Cut it out Hayner!" Roxas snapped as he batted Hayner's hand out of his face. "I'm trying to think."

"Well, pardon me Einstein!"

Laughing at Roxas and Hayner's argument, Kairi looked over at her brother. She had noticed how quiet he had been the whole train ride; she got up and went to sit with him.

"Hey, you're awfully quite, is everything ok?" she asked.

"Hmmm? Oh, yeah." Sora said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"That doesn't sound very convincing you know." She said, "If your not going to tell me what's wrong, then at least make up a better excuse."

Sora sighed and looked at his sister.

"You didn't see him did you?" he asked her, his face darkening.

"See who?"

"The Organization XIII member, the one who stopped me when we were about to get on the train."

"There was an Organization member outside the train station?" she asked, fearfully

"Yes…Kairi, I think Riku's in trouble," Sora's eyes began to cloud over with tears.

"Oh, Sora…"

"Hey are you guys coming?"

They both looked up to find the train empty; Pence poked his head through the door.

"Yeah," Sora called, wiping the tears from his eyes, "we'll be right there"

Sora stood up and turned to Kairi with a determined look in his eye.

"I'm going to help him, I don't know how and I don't know when, but something tells me that he's in trouble, and needs my help. I can't sit by and wait while he may be in danger, I have to find him."

"We'll go together," Kairi said, standing up and taking her brothers hand.

Sora nodded and squeezed Kairi's hand.

"We'll go together."

* * *

**Babbling**

AWW, such a touching moment! As much as I hate Kairi in the actual game, I am enjoying writing her character. It just seems to make more sense that she's Sora's sister, I mean come on! Sora TOTALLY is the type to have a sister complex!

PHEW! That was a LONG chapter, but it was well over due. I decided that I wasn't actually going to write about them AT the beach, it seemed right to end the chapter here. So many cliffhangers in this chapter, what does the boss want with Riku? Why is Roxas acting weird? I guess you'll just have to wait to find out! But, before that, I have a small contest for you guys. Sora's going to be traveling among the collection of worlds from Kingdom hearts I and II, and I want to know what worlds you want to see him go to. So, leave a review with suggestions for worlds, and how many he should travel to.

So, thanks for reading, please leave reviews, and I hope you enjoyed it!

Hayner


	4. Friends in my Heart

**B****lade of Light: Friends In My Heart**

**Date started: 5.04.06**

**Date finished: 5.09.06  
**

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, just the plotline…I no own Kingdom Hearts or Kingdom Hearts 2, and I would be hella rich if I did.

**Author's note:**

Hmm…life is very empty when you complete the story to something as epic as Kingdom Hearts. Here is the fourth chapter; it's so long and wonderful! I hope you enjoy it! Thanks to everyone who left reviews! It means a lot!

As always a / implies thoughts during dreams.

* * *

"Kairi, have you seen my kingdom key chain?" Sora yelled down the stairs as he dug through the pile of clothes on the floor. 

"Its probably in your shorts!" Kairi called up to her brother.

Sora continued to dig through his pile of clothes until he pulled out a pair of black shorts with big red pockets. He reached his hand into one of the pockets and pulled out a handful of key chains. He sorted through them until he found the one he wanted.

"I found it!" he yelled to Kairi.

"Good, Leon and Cloud will be here soon! Are you ready?"

"Almost!"

Sora turned and started to shove the clothes on the floor into a bag. It had been three days since Sora had contacted Leon and now he and Kairi were headed to Traverse Town to prepare for their journey.

"Don't worry Riku," Sora thought, "I'm on my way."

As Sora finished packing his bag, he looked around his room. Everything that he wouldn't be taking with him was in boxes, piled waist high against the walls.

"Another goodbye," he thought, "when will we be able to start saying hello?"

He grabbed his keyblade and took one last look before walking out the door. As he walked down the stairs, he heard the front door open.

"Hey, are you guys still here?" he heard Hayner yell.

Sora entered the kitchen to see Hayner, Olette and Pence gathered around the table.

"We came to say goodbye," Pence explained.

"Yeah, we didn't think we'd make it," Hayner said, "but, we couldn't let you leave with out saying goodbye now, could we?"

"We tried to get Roxas to come, but he said he didn't want to," Olette said sheepishly, "I'm sure he's just sulking because he lost the struggle."

Sora smiled and was about to say something, when he was interrupted by the front door opening again.

"Hey are you midgets ready to go?"

Sora turned to see Cid enter the kitchen, followed by Leon.

"Cid?" Sora stammered, "but I thought Cloud was coming."

"Yeah, well ol'spiky couldn't make it. He had some business to attend to."

"Oh."

Sora turned and nodded to Leon,

"Hey Squall, how's Yuffie and Aerith?"

"Why don't you ask them when we get to Traverse Town?" He muttered angrily, "and it's Leon."

Cid chuckled as Sora glared at Leon.

"I was just wondering, no need to be angry about it."

"Maybe you should stop making small talk and get your butt ready to go. We're being followed."

Sora glared back at Leon but nodded and turned to his friends.

"I guess this is goodbye," he said sadly.

"Will we ever see you again?" Pence asked.

"Of course you'll see us again!" Kairi exclaimed, as she entered the kitchen with her stuff.

Sora nodded.

"Definitely," he said, smiling at his friends.

Hayner got up and held out his hand, Sora grabbed it and they stood there, hands embraced.

"I hope you find your friend," Hayner said, "We'll never forget you guys."

"Hayner…"

"Good luck," Hayner said smiling as he turned away.

Sora turned, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Are you ready to go?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, lets go."

It only occurred to him after he had walked out the door that he would probably never see his friends again.

* * *

"Ok kiddies here's the deal, you don't touch ANYTHING" Cid barked from the captains chair. 

"But I wanted to fly it!" Sora whined, "I've flown one before you know!"

"Sorry midget, but this is MY air ship. Meaning, YOU TOUCH NOTHING!"

Sora slouched back into his seat and pouted as the air ship took off.

"Aww come on Sora, don't mope," Kairi said, trying to cheer up her brother, "we'll be in Traverse Town soon and then you can fly the Gummi ship."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Sora mumbled.

"Hey kid, if you keep that look on your face it'll freeze there."

Sora looked up to see Leon glaring at him.

"So Squall, where's Cloud? Why didn't he come with you?"

"That's none of your business, and its Leon."

"Ok, LEON"

Leon glared down at Sora.

"Um…Leon? You said that you had some new information for us about Organization XIII?" Kairi asked, trying to settle the tension between her brother and Leon.

"Hmph, yeah," Leon muttered. "Apparently, there was an organization member stationed in Twilight Town. We don't know his exact identity, but it seems as though he made direct contact with you more then once a day over the last three months."

"What? But I only say him once, and that was three days ago!" Sora said panicking.

"Well, he must have been in disguise. From the information we gathered, he was someone close to you."

"But…"

Sora was interrupted when the air ship suddenly started to shake.

"Sora, Kairi, sit down and don't move until I come back." Leon shouted over the sound of explosions. "Cid, status report!"

Sora heard Cid yell from the main bridge of the air ship.

"Well the left engine is toast; DAMN those heartless, I just got the engines upgraded."

"How many are following us?"

"Looks like, over a thousand," Cid yelled.

"Shit…" Leon muttered, "You two stay here and be ready to abandon ship if need be."

"Hold up!" Sora heard Cid yell from the front; "these aren't heartless…Leon get your ass up here, we got an unidentified force of ships!"

Leon disappeared toward the main bridge. Sora got up and started to follow him.

"Sora! What are you doing? We're supposed to stay here." Kairi yelled after him.

Sora turned to his sister, "I'm going to help; they can't fight a force of ships that big with only two people."

Kairi stood up and walked over to her brother, "I want to help too."

"But Kairi…"

"Don't you 'but Kairi' me! I'm helping whether you like it or not!"

"Fine, lets go."

Sora and Kairi made their way to the bridge and as they arrived there, they heard Leon and Cid arguing.

"Well how the hell am I supposed to know what they are?"

"They must be Nobodies, there was an Organization member in Twilight Town. I doubt that our exit was unnoticed."

"So, how do we get rid of them? There's thousands of them, we don't have enough fire power to keep this boat in the air."

"Can we out run them?"

"Do you think we could out run them with only ONE ENGINE!"

"I suppose not."

Sora cleared his throat as he and Kairi entered the main bridge.

"What are you midgets doing here? Leon, didn't you get them secured for battle?"

Leon turned to glare at Sora, "I thought I told you to stay put."

"We thought that you could use some help," Sora said as another explosion rocked the ship. "Two men aren't enough to crew a ship in a battle."

"Well I don't think we're going to have time to battle anyone," Cid yelled as he started punching buttons on the control board. "Leon, what's the status of our engines?"

Leon ran over to a blinking display and started to type information into the computer.

"The left engine has been fully blown off, and the right engine is sustaining partial damage and is leaking fuel. We don't have much time before the ship is destroyed."

"Damn!" Cid screamed. "Alright everyone, to the escape pods, we don't have much time!"

Sora grabbed his and Kairi's stuff and began to make his way to the hanger. When he got there, he spotted Cid and Leon supplying one of the escape pods.

"Hurry, up kid, we got to move!"

Sora sprinted over to the pod and threw his stuff in the cargo hold, before making his way to the cockpit. Kairi was already sitting in one of the passenger seats. Sora made his way over to the pilot's chair and plopped down in it. As soon as he had settled in, he felt a hand grab the back of his jacket and pull him out of the seat.

"Sorry kid-o, not this time. Leon, are we clear for launch?"

"All set." Leon said as he took is seat in the co-pilot's chair.

"Yee Haw! Lets blow this popsicle stand!" Cid yelled as he launched the escape pod.

The pod lurched as it was thrown into space.

"Leon, take us out of light speed, these pod's aren't built for high speed travel."

Leon nodded and started to type commands into the computer.

"Entering plane space."

The pod stopped shaking as the pod slowed down to normal speed.

"That should buy us some time to escape the nobodies, but we still have to make it to Traverse Town." Cid said, looking at specs on his display screen.

"How far are we from Traverse Town?" Sora asked, staring out the window into the emptiness of space.

"Far enough that we can't make it in a pod," Cid replied.

"There's a ship approaching," Leon announced, "a small air ship by the looks of it. Should I flag them down?"

"Do it," Cid said, "who knows when another ship will pass this way."

As Leon tried to make contact with the other ship, Sora leaned back and closed his eyes. Who had the Organization member been? Sora didn't want to think that it was one of his friends, but who else had he been close too? He doubted it was Kairi, considering she was standing right next to him when the Organization member appeared in front of the train station. Sora sighed and rubbed his eyes; he hadn't realized how tired he was. Ever since he had encountered the Organization member at the train station, he hadn't been sleeping very well.

"This is escape pod Tiny Bronco, requesting assistance. I repeat, this is escape pod Tiny Bronco, requesting assistance."

"This is air ship JENOVA, how are you doing Squall?"

"I'll tell you how he's doing," Cid interrupted, "he just got my new airship blown up. Now hurry up and open the landing hatch, we got a army of Nobodies after us."

Sora struggled to say awake as Leon and Cid prepared to land the escape pod. But soon his tired brain took over and he dropped into a troubled slumber.

'_Hey I found this really cool place hidden behind the water fall, come on, I'll show you!'_

_Sora looked around / where am I? Is this another dream? Or is it a memory/ _

'_Sora, hurry up!' a voice called from somewhere Sora couldn't see._

_Then he realized where he was._

_/This is Destiny Islands! Am I really home/_

_As he looked around he saw a blond boy poke his head out of a hole in the wall. _

'_Roxas?' Sora stammered, 'what are you doing here?'_

'_Um, I live here remember?' Roxas replied, 'come on, I want to show you this cave.'_

'_But you're supposed to live in Twilight Town, where's Riku?' _

'_Who? There isn't anyone named Riku who lives in Destiny Islands, and what's Twilight Town?'_

'_Um…never mind,' Sora said, stooping down to crawl through the hole. _

_He followed Roxas through the small tunnel into a large cavern. _

_/This is Riku and my secret place, but where are all the drawings/ _

_He stood up and followed Roxas towards a weather worn door, _

_/ I've seen this door before, but where/ _

'_Roxas, why are we here?'_

'_I've heard rumors from some of the other kids that if you open this door, you'll be able to explore a galaxy of worlds that have never been seen before!' _

'_It sounds kind of dangerous, maybe we should just leave it,' Sora said, trying to remember why this all seemed so familiar. _

'_Aww, come on Sora, don't be such a chicken!' Roxas teased pushing Sora towards the door, 'Open it, come on, we can see if the rumors are true.'_

'_I don't know…'_

'_Fine, SCARDY CAT! I guess Tidus and Wakka will be the ones to show us up and open the door!'_

_Sora glared at Roxas defiantly 'Fine, I'll open the door! But only to prove to you that I'm not afraid.'_

_Sora walked toward the door, and placed his hand on the handle. He noticed how small his hands were._

_/ This must be a memory from when I was younger…but is it real/_

'_Are you sure this is ok?' he asked Roxas, 'what if there's a monster behind the door? What if people get hurt?'_

'_Psh, only baby's believe in monsters! Come on Sora, open the door,' Roxas said, an evil look flashed in his eyes. 'Bring me power…' he muttered._

_Sora took a deep breath, and pulled the door open. He opened his eyes and looked into the dark depths that had been hidden behind the door only moments earlier. _

'_I don't see any thing, I guess Tidus and Wakka were wrong.' Sora said, turning to Roxas._

_As he turned around, he saw that Roxas was standing in a swirling dark mist. _

'_Roxas!' he yelled as he started running toward his friend. _

_As he was about to reach him, he saw Roxas raise his arm. All of a sudden Sora felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down and saw he was standing in a dark swirling pool. Another sharp pain shot through him and began to feel as if his heart was being ripped out. He struggled to stay conscious as the darkness engulfed him._

'_Roxas!' he pleaded, 'help me…'_

_He heard Roxas laugh a dark, merciless laugh. _

'_Give into the darkness Sora,' Roxas said, eyes eclipsed in darkness, 'give me your power, and give me your heart!'_

'_No,' Sora whispered as he slipped into the darkness, 'no…'_

_Suddenly, Sora was blinded by a bright light. _

'_Sora!' _

_He heard Riku's voice calling to him, from beyond the light._

"SORA!"

Sora sat up abruptly and looked wildly around.

"Where am I?" He asked cautiously.

"You're in Traverse Town silly!"

Sora looked over to where the voice had come from and saw Yuffie Kisaragi perched on a chair next to his bed.

"Yuffie…when did we get to Traverse Town? The last thing I remember is getting picked up by a ship called JENOVA."

"Yup, that's the name of Cloud's air ship. Although I don't know why he insists on calling it that."

"So…the voice on the intercom was Cloud? It didn't sound like Cloud."

"It was probably Vincent, he deals with ship communication, since Cloud is sulking most of the time these days." She muttered angrily, "That's Cloud…pain in the ass."

Sora heard the door open and looked over to see Tifa Lockheart and Aerith Gainsborough enter with a tray of food.

"Ah, I see that you're finally awake!" Aerith said, coming over and ruffling Sora's hair. "Long time no see."

"Yeah, how have things been?"

"Ok, although, I'm worried about Cloud, he hasn't been himself lately." Aerith said sadly.

"I'm sure Cloud is just worried about the rumors about Sephiroth." Tifa said, setting down the tray of food on the table next to Sora's bed.

"Yeah Aerith, I'm sure Cloud will be back to his old self in no time!" Sora said cheerfully.

Aerith smiled as Sora eyed the tray of food hungrily.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Tifa said, sticking a thermometer in Sora's mouth as he was about to take a bite of the egg's on his plate.

"What? But I'm not sick!" he protested.

"Then explain to me why you had a fever of 103 when you arrived." Tifa said, giving him an annoyed look.

"Besides, we promised Kairi that we'd take care of you." Aerith added.

"Yeah, we almost had to knock her out she was freaking out so much!" Yuffie said, with an amused look on her face. "Of course, we were pretty worried when Cloud nearly broke down the door at three in the morning and started yelling about Nobodies and you being near death."

"Near death?"

"It was pretty scary, you were pale white like materia and mumbling something about a door. We didn't know what to do."

Tifa reached over and pulled the thermometer out of Sora's mouth.

"Hmm…its seems that your fever is gone, but take it easy for a while."

"Where's Kairi? Is she ok?" Sora asked worriedly.

"Oh, yeah, she's fine." Yuffie said, fiddling with her shoe. "Once we got her calmed down enough, she pretty much passed out. I don't think she's up yet, but you could go visit her if you wanted."

Sora started to get out of bed, but was stopped by Tifa.

"You should let her rest, she's pretty worn out."

"Can I just go check on her? I won't wake her up, I just want to make sure she's ok."

"Ok, but make it quick. Cloud wants to talk to you."

Sora stood up and walked out the door into a small hallway. He walked down the hall to a red door and opened it quietly. He slipped through it and went over to the bed. He stood watching his sister sleep, her eyebrows furrowed. As he stood there, she muttered and turned over. It seemed as though she was having a bad dream.

'She looks bad,' he thought, as he brushed a piece of hair out of her face. 'I can't make her suffer like this anymore.'

He left the room as quietly as he could and closed the door with a soft 'click'.

"So," a voice from behind him said, "what are you going to do?"

Sora turned to see Cloud leaned against the wall opposite the door.

"What do you mean, 'what am I going to do?'" Sora asked.

"I mean, are you seriously going to take Kairi with you?"

"Yeah, I promised her that we would go together."

"Come on Sora, be serious. We both know how dangerous this is. We aren't just talking about a cute fun little adventure; this is a trip you might not come back from. Do you really want to put Kairi in that kind of danger?"

"Kairi can take care of herself! She's not some helpless damsel in distress."

"I'm well aware of that," Cloud said darkly, "she nearly had my head last night when I wouldn't push my ship up to full speed. But this isn't about how well she can take care of herself; this is about protecting both of you from Organization XIII. I don't know what they want with you, but they want you badly. They've already used Kairi to get to you once, do you really want to have to chose between her and Riku again?"

"No," said Sora begrudgingly.

"Well, think about it. You don't have to decide now, but just keep in mind what's at stake here."

Cloud turned at started to walk towards the stairs.

"Cloud?"

"Hmm?" Cloud turned to look at Sora.

"You'll take care of her right? You won't let her get hurt?"

"I'll guard her with my life. I promise, no harm will come to your sister as long as I'm around."

Sora nodded, and looked down at the ground sadly. He knew that it was the right choice, but he felt bad for breaking his promise to Kairi.

"Aw, don't look so sad. Some little thief has stolen some of my materia and I need help getting it back."

Sora grinned at Cloud; he always loved it when Cloud and Yuffie got in fights. If anything could cheer him up, even if temporarily, it would be that.

"Ok, I'll help." He said, "but if she starts brandishing that giant shuriken of hers, I'm out."

* * *

AHH, such a nice long chapter. 

Thanks to Ariel for editing, thanks to everyone for reading. Please leave some reviews! I hope you liked it!

Hayner.


	5. Always on My Mind

**Blade of Light: Always on my Mind**

**Date started: 5.07.06**

**Date Finished: 5.13.06**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom hearts, Final Fantasy or any of the characters in it.

**Authors Note:**

Thanks to everyone who left a review or put this story on their favorites list! It means a lot to me that people are actually reading this story. So, thank you very much! Read and Review please!

This story takes place after the events of Kingdom Hearts, and disregards everything that happens in Kingdom Hearts II (for the most part). Just incase you get confused.

* * *

Roxas slammed his fist against the wall of the computer room. He had been so close to getting that spiky haired idiots heart. The army of Nobodies he had sent to take care of the air ship had succeeded in destroying the ship, but some how Sora had slipped through the cracks and escaped.

"You shouldn't get so angry," a voice from behind him said.

Roxas turned around to see Zexion standing behind him with an amused look on his face.

"What's so funny?" he asked angrily.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. You just seem to give up so easily, or maybe you're just trying too hard."

"What do you mean, trying to hard?"

"You keep trying to eliminate him completely, but maybe you should wait and let him come to you. He is, after all, looking for that silver haired boy."

"Are you suggesting that I do nothing to eliminate him? That I stop trying to get his heart?"

"No, I'm suggesting that you lead him right into the hands of the Organization. Manipulate him, set a path for him to follow."

"And what makes you think that will work?"

"Oh, come on Roxas, you're just jealous that I thought of it before you. You know that it will work. Just because you have the boss fooled doesn't mean you can manipulate all of us to be your minions."

* * *

"Well, well, if it isn't Axel and our little hostage." Xemnas said, as Riku and Axel entered the large throne room.

"Hiya boss," Axel said, "I must say, you look wonderfully…er…evil today sir."

"Hmph, I already know why you're late Axel, don't try to get out of this one."

"So Saïx was lying," Riku thought.

Riku looked over to see Axel shifting uncomfortably.

"Ah, well you know, this is a big castle and all…"

"Shut up you fool, I'll deal with you later. Go wait outside until I'm done with this brat."

"Yes your royal darkness sir!"

Axel turned and walked out of the room. Riku turned to see Axel give him a thumbs up as he closed the door.

"So, you're the one he says is going to bring us the key bearer."

"Excuse me?" Riku turned to Xemnas and gave him a quizzical look.

"Oh, nothing," Xemnas said as he approached Riku.

"What are you going to do with me? What are you planning?"

"I guess there's no harm in telling you our plan, seeing as you're not going anywhere. Our plan is to use you to bring us the key bearer and then we will use his heart to complete Kingdom Hearts. And why do we want to use his heart to complete Kingdom Hearts you ask? Because with a heart as strong and as pure as his, we can finally be reunited with our own hearts and this will bring us ultimate power!"

Xemnas turned to him and grinned with a malicious look in his eyes.

"But that's not all, you don't think we would use you once and let you get away did you? No, we need you to unlock the power of the pure one's heart with your keyblade. Only the one who possesses the keyblade that has the power to unlock hearts can unlock the power of the pure one's heart."

"No, never! I would never help you hurt Sora!" Riku said, angry flashing in his eyes.

"Yes, get angry Riku, join us, revert back into darkness, it is the only way for you to become whole again. If you join us in darkness, you will have more power then you could ever imagine. "

"What do you mean 'whole again'?"

"Well, I could tell you, but that would take the fun out of my plan, I think that's enough for one day. And don't worry, I'll leave your little Sora alone…for now!"

Xemnas turned and clapped his hands. Two hooded figures appeared and grabbed Riku.

"I'll never help you!" Riku yelled as he was dragged out of the throne room. "NEVER!"

* * *

Kairi woke up to yelling. As she stumbled down the stairs to find out what was going on, a small shuriken whizzed passed her and hit the wall.

"Yuffie, give me back my Materia!" Cloud yelled as he dodged another shuriken.

"I didn't steal any of your Materia!"

"You kleptomaniac! I know you would be the only one to take it!"

"Fine, so maybe I did take some. But I'm not giving it back!" Yuffie yelled and stuck out her tongue.

As Kairi stumbled into the kitchen she saw that Yuffie and Cloud were standing on opposite sides of the table yelling at each other. She also noticed how everyone else seemed to be standing around watching. Sora spotted her from his perch on the kitchen counter and came over to help her to a seat on the couch.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her as they sat down on the couch.

"How am I feeling? What about you, you scared us all half to death."

"Oh I'm ok. Kairi, do you remember Roxas?"

"Sora, why wouldn't I remember him? It hasn't been that long since we left Twilight Town. Are you sure you're feeling ok?"

"No…I mean, do you remember him when he lived on Destiny Islands?"

"Sora, maybe you should lie down. Roxas never lived on Destiny Islands." Kairi reached up and put her hand on Sora's forehead. "You don't have a fever."

"Well, I could have told you that. But I'm serious, do you remember anything before Riku appeared on the islands?"

"Riku always lived on the islands."

"How old are we in your memories of Riku?"

"I don't know we must be around 6 or 7, why?"

"Exactly, we have no memories before we were 6 or 7. But the funny thing is I keep having this memory of when we were 4 and we are playing with Roxas."

"Sora, that's impossible, we never met Roxas until we moved to Twilight Town. You should really go lie down, I think that you're stressed out."

"But Kairi, I also had this dream, the night we came to Traverse Town. I feel asleep in the escape pod, and had this dream about Roxas, and the secret place."

Sora told Kairi everything that had happened in his dream, in hopes that he could jog her memory of Roxas on Destiny Islands.

"But Sora, it was just a dream. It wasn't real."

"It was too real," Sora said, his eyes darkening. "Even if my mind doesn't remember, my heart does."

Sora felt Kairi's hand ruffle his hair and he looked up to see her smiling at him.

"Then I believe you Sora, because I know that your heart wouldn't lie."

Sora looked at his sister with a pained look on his face.

"Kairi, I can't lie to you now either, my heart won't let me."

"What do you mean Sora?"

"Kairi, I can't let you come with me to find Riku. The trip is too dangerous."

"But, you promised…you promised that we would go together."

"Its too dangerous, I don't want the Organization to use you again. I don't want you getting hurt. You'll be much saf…" he was interrupted by Kairi.

"Do you think I care? Do you think that I can't take care of myself? I don't care what's safer for me, I want to help you, you're always the one saving me." Kairi yelled, standing up. "I'm not a baby any more Sora, I can take care of myself!"

Kairi stormed up the stairs and slammed her door. Sora sat on the couch shaking, he hated arguing with his sister, but he couldn't put her in danger. It took a few minutes for him to realize that the yelling in the kitchen had stopped, and that everyone was looking at him.

"I…uh…" Sora stammered his face turning red.

Cid burst out laughing.

"That's quite a head strong young lady! But, don't worry son," he said slapping Sora on the back, "she'll come around, just give her some time."

"I think your being a bit insensitive towards the situation," Leon said, glaring at Cid.

"Since when have you been so touchy feely? Sora just wants to protect his sister, it's the manly thing to do!"

"Yeah, but what about what Kairi wants?" Tifa asked.

"Well, then that's for them to argue out, but in the end Sora's her big brother and she should respect that! He's the man of the house after all."

"Sexist! Sexist!" Yuffie yelled at Cid.

Cid glared at Yuffie.

"You watch your tongue, princess."

"You!" Yuffie retorted.

"Ok, everybody shut up!" Cloud said, "Arguing about it isn't going to solve the problem. I think that we should let Sora solve this on his own."

"But she probably won't listen to me, she's pretty mad."

"I'll talk to her and try to calm her down."

Sora looked up at Aerith, "You would do that?" Sora asked, "I mean, you don't think I'm doing the wrong thing? I broke my promise."

"I don't think you did the right thing breaking your promise, but I know what its like to want to protect a person you love, even if it means breaking a promise."

Aerith turned and started to walk towards the stairs. Sora saw that Cloud had a surprised look on his face.

"Aerith…"

Aerith interrupted Cloud as she stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned to Sora.

"So, I'll talk to her. But not to convince her to let you go off and get killed, I'm only convincing her to give you a second chance."

With that Aerith turned and walked up the stairs to Kairi's room. Cloud stood rooted to the spot as he watched Aerith disappear up the stairs.

Cid let out a low whistle, "Hell, that was more drama then I need in a life time."

This seemed to bring Cloud out of his trance; he turned and started for the door.

"I'm going out."

As Cloud slammed the door, Sora slumped into a chair that hadn't been knocked over by Yuffie and put his head in his hands.

"What am I going to do?" he thought aloud, "She must hate me now. All I wanted to do was protect her."

"All anyone ever intends to do is protect the people they love," Leon said as he picked up a chair and sat down across from Sora. "You just have to make her realize how much is at stake here. This isn't just about her safety; it's about the safety of the world order. If Organization XIII gets both yours and Kairi's hearts, then everything we have fought for is gone. They will surely take over the worlds, and plunge them into internal darkness."

"But what if I fail? What if I need to be saved? What if they get my heart anyway, Kairi will still be in danger. Would that danger be any worse then the danger she would face on this journey?"

"Sora, even if you failed, Kairi would still be safe with us, you know that we would fight to our deaths to keep your sister safe. You and Kairi are as much a part of our family as Cloud or Aerith. As long as she is alive, there is still hope that someday we will be able to fight back the darkness. Do you know why?"

"Yes. I know why."

Sora remembered the time when he had to face Riku in Hollow Bastion. The images were almost crystal clear in his memory. He remembered turning into a heartless, and how Kairi's light had guided him back.

"She and you share the same pureness of heart. As long as one of you survives, there will always be hope. There will always be a door to the light."

* * *

Kairi sat on the bed staring out the window, looking out over the streets of the third district. She couldn't believe that Sora had broken his promise to her. Of all people she thought that she could trust Sora, but she had been wrong.

"I'm such an idiot, thinking Sora would actually take me with him." She sighed and turned away from the window. She heard someone coming up the stairs and quickly wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"Kairi? Its Aerith, can we talk?"

"Yeah, but if your trying to convince me that Sora was right, then I'm not going to talk to you."

"I'm not going to try to convince you of anything, I just want to talk."

"Ok…"

Aerith opened the door and sat next the Kairi on the bed.

"You know, its human nature for people to want to protect the person they love."

"Humph, Sora loves Riku more, why didn't he protect him? Why did he choose me over him?"

"How do you know Sora loves Riku more the he loves you?"

"You've obviously never heard him talking about Riku. I doubt he even had this much determination when he came to save me from the heartless. He's always sheltering me; he always treats me like I'm three. Doesn't he know I can take care of myself? Him and Riku always fought side be side, and I always had to stand back and let them protect me. Its not fair!"

Tears started to form in Kairi's eyes and she angrily wiped them away.

"Kairi, are you even listening to what your saying? From what you've said, it's obvious that Sora loves you more then anything, even Riku. I'm sure that this has hurt him more then you can imagine, having to break his promise to you."

"Stop acting like you understand," Kairi said angrily, tears streaming down her face. "You have no idea what its like to have to watch your brother go off and fight while you have to stay home helpless."

"You're right, what do I know about letting someone you love go off and fight? I only watch Cloud go off in search of Sephiroth everyday. But, that can't compare with what _you_ must go through."

Kairi sat in an embarrassed silence, as tears kept dripping out of her eyes.

"Aerith…I'm sorry, I…I just wasn't thinking. I just feel like such an idiot, I knew deep in my heart that Sora wouldn't actually take me with him, but even knowing that, I just thought that maybe, this time, he would be telling the truth."

With this Kairi started crying harder, she hugged her knees to her chest and cried into them. Aerith rubbed her back and tried to calm her down.

"It's ok, I'm the one who should be sorry, and I didn't mean to upset you more."

"No, I'm the one who should be sorry. Sora was right; I shouldn't be going with him, I'm too much of a burden. I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble."

"Kairi, you think that you're causing me trouble?"

"Well, yeah, I mean you had to come up here to convince me to not give Sora trouble and stay here. I'm sorry for wasting your time. So, just tell Sora that I will stay here while he flies off to rescue Riku. Tell him that through your convincing, I finally decided his choice was right."

"Kairi, I didn't come here to convince you of anything. I came her to see if you would give Sora a chance to talk to you and let him explain himself. It wasn't a waste of my time, because I care about you and I wanted to make sure that your ok. So stop wallowing in self pity and act you age, honestly you act just like Cloud."

Aerith got up off the bed, and started walking toward the door.

"Aerith, wait…"

"Just think about what Sora said; you don't have to agree with anything but just think about it. You'll always have people who care about you Kairi, just remember that."

* * *

Sora came down to the kitchen that morning feeling as if he had been through a meat grinder. He hadn't slept well for the past three days, and Kairi still hadn't come out of her room. There had also been a lot of unease in the house, Cloud had never come back from his walk and Aerith was mad at Vincent for not letting her go after him. And then there was the alarming appearance of Vincent; Sora still flinched every time he would appear in a swirl of red cloak. It wasn't as if Vincent was that intimidating, but every time he looked at Sora, he felt as if Vincent was probing him with his cold glare, like he was scrutinizing him.

"What does he want from me?" Sora thought as he sat down at the table with a box of cereal and was quietly observed by Vincent.

"Sora."

Sora looked up to see Yuffie enter the kitchen. He looked over to see Vincent's reaction, he had noticed that there was an odd tension between Yuffie and Vincent; maybe it was just their polarized personalities. Yuffie being spunky and energetic and Vincent being as serious as he was, they were like night and day. But looking over towards Vincent, Sora found that he had disappeared again.

"G'morning Yuffie, you look tired."

"Well, I was out scouring the town for information on Cloud all night. But don't tell Vincent, its seems like there's something he's not telling us. I feel like he's hiding something about Clouds disappearance from us."

"He kinda gives me the creeps."

"Yeah, well, he's had a tragic past. Oh, Tifa was looking for you this morning, I think she wants to talk to you."

"Ok, I'll go find her," Sora said, standing up and carrying his uneaten bowl of cereal to the sink. "If Kairi comes out of her room, tell her I want to talk to her."

"Will do," Yuffie said as she started rummaging around the kitchen to find something to eat. "Oh, I almost forgot, Tifa is waiting by the fountain."

"Thanks Yuffie!"

Sora ran out the door and into the Third District. He started to make his way to the fountain, it was an overcast day and the air was borderline freezing. He shivered and hugged himself for warmth as he walked down the stairs towards the fountain. He hoped that their conversation wouldn't last long, he promised himself that today he set things right with Kairi.

"Hey Tifa," he said as he approached the fountain, "Yuffie said that you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes, thank you for coming, I would have just talked to you in the house, but its getting a little crowded these days and I wanted to make sure we wouldn't have anyone listening in on our conversation. I know its cold, so I'll make this brief. The King has contacted Leon and requested that you come to his castle as quickly as possible. He has found out some new information concerning the Organization member in Twilight Town and about where Riku might be. But, you'd need to leave two days from now, the king says that the darkness is growing and soon it will be impossible to bring Riku back."

"What? Is Riku ok!"

"He's fine, for the time being, but the Organization is trying to use him. We can't waste any more time." Tifa said, stretching, "That's pretty much all Leon told me, he would have told you himself, but he is out looking for Cloud at the moment, so he asked me to talk to you."

Sora nodded then, turned to go back to the house.

"Tifa, do you think I'm making the right decision to not let Kairi be involved?"

"I think that it's noble of you to protect her, but only your heart can tell you what's right and what's wrong."

"Hmm." Sora replied as he started to walk back to the house.

Kairi was in the kitchen when he got back.

"Kairi!" Sora said surprised. "I'm glad that your up, I was worried about you."

"Sora, do you think that I'm selfish? Do you think that I'm just some self centered little snot?"

"Kairi, of course I don't. Sure you a brat sometimes, but that's just your job as my little sister." Sora smiled and sat down next to Kairi at the table.

"Sora..."

"Kairi, I'm sorry I broke my promise to you, it was wrong, and I hope I can make it up to you. But, I can't allow you to come with me on a journey that I might not come back from."

"Sora...don't say that you won't come back."

"I'm just preparing you for what might happen, it's a dangerous trip and if the Organization happens to win, I want to make sure that you are safe."

"But what about you Sora? Who's going to keep you safe? And don't you say Riku, we both know for a fact that if you get in trouble, there will be a very little chance of him being able to save you."

"I know, and I'm willing to accept that, but I'm not going on this journey alone. Donald and Goofy will be accompanying me."

"Hmph, so you can trust those bone heads but not your own sister?"

"Kairi, you know I'd rather have you come with me..."

"Then take me with you!"

"I can't."

"Why not? Because it's not safe, right? Maybe I don't care, maybe if I die to help you save Riku, I'll be happy knowing that you would be happy."

"Kairi, I can't tell you why! It would just put you in greater danger!"

"I can't believe this! First you break your promise and now you won't even tell me why. You know, I was willing to forgive you, but now I don't know if I could ever forgive you! I hate you!"

Kairi got up and started to stomp upstairs, but Sora caught her arm.

"You want to know why? FINE! I'll tell you why," Sora yelled, "its because, if they get both of our hearts, they'll be unstoppable! Sure they only need my heart to gain back their own, but to gain the power of Kingdom Hearts they need both of our hearts. If they use our hearts to complete Kingdom Hearts, it's over for everyone. The Organization will take over the whole universe. Is that what you want?"

Kairi stood frozen to the spot as she listened to Sora panting from his yelling.

"Are you happy now? Well, I hope you're happy, because now you've put EVERYONE in danger."

Sora roughly let go of Kairi's arm and stormed upstairs to his room. After a few minutes she heard a door slam. She couldn't stop shaking, as she sunk into one of the kitchens chairs. She had never seen her brother lose it like that before, it scared her a little bit, that someone as optimistic and calm as Sora could completely lose it like that. She heard the front door open and heard someone come into the kitchen.

"Kairi? Are you ok?" Tifa looked concerned as she looked at the shaking girl.

"I…I'm…"

Kairi gave Tifa a frightened look and then ran up the stairs.

* * *

Sora lay in the dark, listening to the sounds of dinner being served. He could hear the hushed voices of the others and the clinking of plates and glasses. It had been two days since his fight with Kairi, and at first the others kept trying to find out what had happened, but after a few hours they had left him alone. He sighed and pulled himself into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. He would be leaving for Disney Castle tomorrow, but he felt as if there were still a few things he had to take care of before he left. He got up and went downstairs into the kitchen. As he entered the kitchen, it became very quiet.

"Sora," Aerith said, surprised to see him.

"What do you want?" Leon asked, glaring.

"I want to set things right before I leave. First, I'm sorry for causing everyone so much trouble. Second, I have a confession to make. Leon, I know you told me not to tell Kairi about Kingdom Hearts, but we had a fight two days ago and I lost my temper and told her. I'm…I'm sorry Leon."

"You are undeniably the biggest idiot in Traverse Town. No, in the whole universe! I can't believe you told her, but seeing as it's too late to do anything about it, we just have to be more careful from now on. The Organization doesn't know about Kairi yet, so we do have that advantage, but we shall never speak of it again and if anyone asks, you don't know what they are talking about, kapiche? And the same goes for Kairi."

Sora nodded, "I understand, I'm sorry if I've inconvenienced you in any way."

Aerith smiled at Sora, "Don't worry Sora, everything will turn out fine"

"I hope your right. Kairi hasn't been down has she?"

"No, we haven't seen her since your fight." Tifa said, "Why don't you take her some food, I'm sure she's hungry."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Sora said, as his stomach growled. "Ha, maybe I should take some food too."

* * *

Sora balanced two plates on his left arm and knocked on Kairi's door with his right.

"Kairi? Are you awake?"

"Go away, I don't want to talk to _you._"

"Aww, come on Kairi, I brought you food."

"I'm not hungry."

"Kairi, you need to eat, you haven't eaten for days. I'm leaving tomorrow, and I want to set things right before I leave." Sora could tell that she was ignoring him on purpose, "At least take the food, even if you won't talk to me."

Kairi opened the door begrudgingly, she hated being defeated, but she _was _hungry. Sora seized the opportunity to jam the door with his foot, and then push past Kairi into her room.

"Did I say you could come in?"

"No, but I need to do this before I leave. It wouldn't feel right leaving if you were mad at me. And besides, if I die I don't want to die with out having said good bye to you."

"Well aren't you the optimist. Fine, but only because I wouldn't want my last memory of you to be a fight."

"Ok, good, but first you should eat, because I know how you get when you're hungry."

After they had eaten through an awkward silence, Sora walked over to the bed and sat down next to Kairi. Kairi scooted away from him, and turned her back on him.

"Kairi, I'm sorry for breaking my promise to you. I wish that I didn't have to, but the fact is that I don't want to lose you to the Organization again. It was too painful the first time, and not because I had to choose between you and Riku, but because you got hurt and it was my fault I couldn't protect you. I'm also sorry for keeping an important secret from you; I should have just told you instead of trying to protect you through ignorance. Do you forgive me?"

Kairi turned around with a surprised look on her face; Sora saw that Kairi's eyes were glazed over with tears.

"Kairi? Are you ok?"

"Sora…I'm…I'm sorry for doubting you."

"Kairi, you shouldn't be sorry, I'm the one who made a mistake."

"No, Sora, I made a terrible mistake. I thought that you loved Riku more then you loved me. That's why I got so mad at you when you said I couldn't go. I thought that you just didn't want me to interfere once you found Riku. I was jealous of you and Riku, because if I got kidnapped, you would ask him to help you. I'm such an idiot."

Sora looked surprised as Kairi started sobbing.

"Kairi, why would you think that I loved Riku more then I love you? You're my sister, and there's nobody who could ever replace you, not even Riku."

"Oh Sora…"

Kairi flung her arms around him, crying into his shirt. Sora wrapped his arms around her and held her until her sobs started to soften. After an hour or so, Sora looked down and noticed that she had fallen a sleep.

"Just like when we were little," Sora thought, "Will things ever be that simple again?"

Sora picked her up and pulled back the covers on the bed. He laid her down, and pulled the blankets over her.

"No matter what Kairi, I will always love you." Sora whispered as he closed the door with a small 'click'. "I promise."

* * *

Sora sighed, as he made sure he hadn't forgotten anything. He had changed into his traveling clothes, and put all of his key chains in one of his red pockets. He checked to make sure that his other pocket had some extra potions in it incase he ran into trouble on his way to Disney Castle. He wished he could take more, but there was no need for him to bring a bag and his stuff would be safe here until he got back…he hoped.

He picked up his keyblade, and started to head out of his bedroom door. It seemed as though he was leaving a lot of rooms lately.

"I hope that this is the last time," he thought, "I hope that the next time I enter a house, it will be home, on Destiny Islands, with Riku by my side."

He tried not to think that he might never see Destiny Islands or Riku again. He tried not to think that if he failed, there might not be any Destiny Islands or home to return to.

"I got to think positive," he thought as he closed the door, "I will go home to Destiny Islands, with Riku and Kairi by my side. I won't fail, I can't, because failure is not an option."

Sora turned, and started to head downstairs when Kairi's door was flung open and almost hit him.

"AH! Sora, I'm sorry! Are you ok?"

"Yeah, Kairi, I'm fine, the door didn't hit me. Just watch where you're going next time."

"I was afraid that you had left already. I was afraid that you had left without saying good bye."

"Kairi, I would never leave with out saying good bye to you."

"I know, but I was still afraid that I was too late. Even though I knew you wouldn't leave, I felt like after you left my room last night, you were already gone. I…felt so alone."

"Kairi, you'll never be alone, I'll always be right here," Sora pointed a finger towards Kairi's chest, "in your heart, all you have to do is close your eyes and you'll be able to see me anytime you want."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes, I promise, from the bottom of my heart, that this is a promise that can never be broken."

* * *

**Blabbing:**

AWWW, cute! The ending of this chapter is TRES imprtant so remember it later. Please leave reviews! Because I love it when you do, it makes me happy. Thanks for reading!


	6. Fragments of Sorrow

**Blade of Light: Fragments of Sorrow**

**Date started: 5. 13. 06**

**Date Finished:**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kingdom Hearts, the characters in it, or the Disney corps. Characters. I only own the plot line. The line used by Sephiroth (What I have shown you is reality… as a part of me.) and Cloud ("Aerith…she was smiling till the end." And "I'm not fit to help anyone... No one...") are property of Yoshinori Kitase and Kazushige Nojima and Square Enix.

**Authors note:**  
Ah I'm soooo sorry for not posting for ever. School is deffiniatly scraping away at my soul, its killing me. So, please read and review!

* * *

Riku woke up from a cold sleep as his cell door opened. He slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position, trying to see who was standing in his door way but the light from the hall was blinding him. The silhouette picked up a crumpled black heap that had been lying at its feet and threw it into the cell. The cell door slammed and left Riku in darkness once again. Riku got on his hands and knees and started to crawl over toward the black mass on the ground. As Riku approached the shadow, he heard it groan.

"Hey," Riku whispered, poking the black heap, "Are you ok? Who are you?"

"Ugh, you can't even remember the guy who brought you food for the last 4 months?" a familiar voice groaned.

"Axel?"

"Nice to see you too, a little help?"

Riku pulled Axel into a sitting position against a near by wall.

"What happened to you? You look awful."

"Well, you know how Saïx said that he didn't tell Xemnas about why I was late? Well apparently he did, and now I'm charged with aiding an enemy escape."

"But you were just lost! You weren't trying to help me escape." Riku looked at Axel in the darkness and saw that he had a sheepish look on his face. "You _were_ trying to help me escape? But why?"

"Well…you remind me of my friend Roxas…or at least we used to be friends. You see, Roxas seems to have some sort of grudge against the key barer, and one day, he found an old journal with notes on the heart and Kingdom Hearts. Ever since then, he has been using Xemnas to carry out his plan to complete Kingdom Hearts using the key barer's heart. The power of the darkness has changed him; I miss the old Roxas. I thought that maybe if I helped you escape, he might forget about his plan to take over the universe and return to his old self."

"And I remind you of him how?"

"Well, I'm not really sure, there's just something about you that reminds me of him. That's why I wanted to help you escape, because I didn't want you to turn to the darkness like he did. I didn't want your friend Sora to have to lose you like I lost him."

"Axel…"

"It's weird, nobodies aren't supposed to have emotions, but when I was around Roxas, he made me feel like I really did have a heart. You make me feel the same way."

Axel started coughing and a dark liquid trickled out of his mouth.

"Axel!"

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I've had much worse injuries then these."

"But you have internal bleeding, I think I've got a Mega Elixir here some where. Hold on, let me find it."

Riku started to franticly search his pockets,

"Why do you care so much? I'm just a tool, a puppet, I'm not worth the effort."

Riku finally found the Mega Elixir, and pulled out the cork.

"Here drink this, it will heal you for the most part, but you'll still have some bruising. And don't say that you're not worth the effort, heart or no heart, you're still my friend."

Axel looked at him with a surprised look on his face, "Your friend?"

"Yeah, you tried to help me escape even though you had no reason to try to help me. You were always nice to me and chatted when you brought me my food. If you had a heart, it would be in the right place, I'm sure of it." Riku smiled at Axel, "Now you should probably rest, its going to take a lot more then just a Mega Elixir to get you back up and fighting again. Although I don't know how sleeping on a cold hard floor is going to help, but," Riku put Axel's arm over his shoulders and moved him to a spot that he usually slept, "Here, you can sleep in the _soft _spot."

Axel smiled as Riku put him down, "Riku?"

"Hm?"

"Thanks."

* * *

Sora yawned as he leaned back in the captain's chair in the cockpit of his Gummi ship. He had been flying for hours, he almost wished that there were some heartless ships to fight, but they all seemed to have disappeared when the door to Kingdom Hearts closed. He wished Riku were here with him, he knew that if Riku were here, he would never have been this bored. 

Sora hugged his knees; he would give anything to see Riku, even if it was only for a few seconds. He wanted to ask Riku so many things, especially if Riku felt the same way about him.

"I wonder what he thinks of me now," Sora thought, as he closed his eyes and tried to remember what Riku's reaction was when the Organization member had revealed his secret.

"He looked surprised, he didn't look like he was angry or disgusted, just pleasantly surprised and a little hopeful. But Riku isn't the kind of person who shows emotion easily, so it must have caught him off guard. Maybe he was just flattered, or maybe he liked me before he found out and was surprised that I returned his feelings." Sora sighed and rubbed his eyes, "or maybe I'm just imagining the whole thing. Its seems like its getting harder to tell the difference between reality and my dreams."

A small gauge on the control panel started to beep to signal him that he was coming up on a world. Sora sat up and looked out the window, he could see a huge castle and a garden that took up most of the world's surface. The castle was so huge, that Sora could see all the banners and flags that were waving in the wind. Sora sat stunned, he had never seen a castle of such grandeur before, and the only other castle he had seen was the castle in Hollow Bastion and that could hardly count as a real castle.

"This is the Disney Castle Gummi port, please identify your ship and purpose."

"Chip? Is that you?" Sora asked, surprised to hear the little chipmunk technicians voice.

"Sora? Ah, that's right, you were supposed to be showing up today for an audience with the king. You can dock your ship at hanger 3, I'll call Donald and Goofy down to escort you."

"Um, ok, thanks."

Sora flew his Gummi ship into the main port and landed it on the pad at hanger 3. As soon as he had dropped down from the cockpit, he saw Donald and Goofy running toward him.

"Donald! Goofy!" Sora yelled, running the remainder of the distance between them and hugging them both.

"Sora!"

"I'm so happy to see you!" Sora exclaimed, "I missed you guys."

"We missed you too Sora," Goofy said, ruffling Sora's hair. "Right Donald?"

"Yeah, sure did!"

Sora smiled at his friends, they had been through so much together.

"Um…Donald, didn't Sora have an audience with the king about Corporation XIII to get to?"

"Organization! We better get going, the king is waiting."

* * *

Sora looked at the doors into the king's audience chamber. It was bigger then the doors to Kingdom Hearts, Sora stared up at the handle and realized that he would never be able to reach it. Donald and Goofy burst out laughing at the confused look on his face, 

"That handle is fake, the huge doors are all for show," Donald explained as he went and knocked twice on the door on the left. After a few seconds, a small door popped open at the base of the larger left door.

"Ok, this is as far as we go," Donald said, standing aside, "the king said that it was to be a private audience."

"Good luck Sora!" Goofy called, as him and Donald disappeared down the hall.

Sora tried to straiten up his clothes to look presentable for the king. He had never really talked to the king, he just saw him behind the door of Kingdom Hearts. Once he had been able to smooth some of the wrinkles out of his clothes, he proceeded through the door.

As Sora entered the audience chamber, his mouth fell open. He had never been in such a large room! The floors and walls were sparkling white marble and the ceiling was so high that Sora could barely see where the windows ended and the sky began. He was so absorbed in taking in all of the room that he didn't notice the king walking towards him.

The kind cleared his throat as he stood next to Sora, "Quite a room, isn't it?"

Sora looked down to see the king standing before him.

"Ah! Your majesty!" Sora bowed down, remembering how Donald and Goofy had taught him.

"At ease Sora, no need for formalities between us."

"Yes, your majesty."

"Call me Mickey, ok?"

"Um, ok."

"So Sora, I've called you here to tell you about the Organization, and where Riku might be."

"You know where Riku is!" Sora asked excitedly.

"No, but we know that the Organization lives on a world called The World that Never Was as. At this point we don't know where it is, or if it is even accessible to non-Organization members. Riku is most likely being held on that world, it is a world where nobodies thrive."

"Nobodies? What are nobodies?"

For the next half hour, Sora sat as King Mickey explained about the Organization and their plans.

"So, you think that they are trying to make Riku revert back to the darkness so he can use his keyblade to open my heart?"

"Yes, which is why you have to be careful, whatever information you may find out about Riku, you must make sure to tell us before chasing off after some rumor. If the Organization gets you heart, its one thing, but if they are able to unlock its power, they will be unstoppable."

"But I thought that they needed both Kairi's and my hearts to become all powerful."

"Sora, if they are able to unlock your heart, then it's only a matter of time before they will have Kairi's."

"Hey, Kairi can take care of herself!"

"But against the Organization, she doesn't have a chance, especially if they have already unlocked the power of your heart. Just promise me Sora, that you won't make any brash actions."

"I promise," Sora replied.

"Good, then that's all taken care of. Can I offer you something to eat? The cooks in our kitchens are the best."

"Sure!" Sora said enthusiastically.

Sora and Mickey were on their way out of the giant audience chamber, when Donald came running up to them with a panicked look on his face.

"Your majesty! You've received an urgent note from Leon! Traverse Town is being attacked by Nobodies."

"What?" Sora yelled, "Kairi, is Kairi ok?"

"We don't know," Donald said with a worried look on his face, "Leon just said that it was urgent."

Sora bowed to the king, "I'm sorry your majesty, but I've got to go, I promised that I would be there whenever Kairi needed me."

"I don't know Sora, this could be a trap. The Organization might be trying to use Kairi to get to you again."

"But your majesty!" Sora whined.

"Its not safe for you Sora, you should stay here, I'll go and make sure that everyone is ok."

"Please," Sora pleaded, getting down on both knees, "Please your majesty, I already broke a very important promise to my sister, don't make me break another, especially one that I promised couldn't be broken."

Mickey looked at the frightened look in Sora's eyes and sighed.

"Donald, go tell Chip and Dale to install a warp Gummi in Sora's ship."

"Yes your majesty!" Donald said, as he bowed to the king and then ran off toward the Gummi port.

Sora was so relieved that he gave the king a big hug, "Thank you your majesty! I promise you that I won't fail, I won't let the Organization get my heart."

The king smiled and patted Sora on the back, "Lets hope that you're right Sora."

* * *

Sora arrived in Traverse Town within half an hour using the warp Gummi that the chipmunk mechanics had installed in his Gummi ship. Sora sprinted to the third district, as he entered it he heard an explosion in the direction of the house. Panicking, he pulled out his keyblade and ran towards the direction of the house. What he saw as he rounded the corner, made his blood run cold. 

Cloud was standing in the middle of the street, blood running down his left arm, which gripped his giant sword to keep him up. In his other arm, Sora saw Aerith, lying limply in his arms. Sora stood and watched as a man with long silver hair and one black wing raised his sword to finish Cloud. Sora ran forward and parried the sword with his keyblade; he turned his head towards Cloud.

"Cloud, quickly! Take Aerith and get out of here."

Sora saw that Cloud had tears in his eyes,

"Its too late," Cloud said softly, "its too late for her. I couldn't protect her…"

"Lets finish this!" Sora heard the one winged man yell.

Sora turned to see the one winged man attacking again. He just barely blocked it as the one winged man jumped away to attack again.

"That's enough Sephiroth!" a voice called.

Sephiroth turned to see a figure wearing the black coat of the Organization. He had light brown hair that had a pink tint to it and was carrying pink scythe.

"Ah, Marluxia, what a pleasant surprise."

"The boss won't be happy about this," Marluxia said, "you were supposed to report directly to Xemnas, not stop to toy with people's emotions."

"I apologize sir, but this was something I needed to take care of before I reported."

The man called Sephiroth turned to Cloud and gave him a cold, satirical, smile.

"What I have shown you is reality, only death awaits you all. But do not fear. For it is through death that a new spirit energy is born. Soon, you will live again as a part of me."

"Sephiroth! Lets go, the boss doesn't like to be kept waiting." With that, Marluxia conjured up a dark portal and disappeared into it.

"Until we meet again Cloud, and don't be too miserable, you'll soon be joining Aerith." Sephiroth wrapped himself in his one black wing and disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

Sora turned around to see Cloud standing behind him, holding a very lifeless Aerith in his arms.

"Aerith…she was smiling till the end. I just wanted to protect her; I didn't want her to get hurt. I'm not fit to help anyone... No one..."

"Cloud…"

"Sora, life is short and precious; don't make the same mistake I did. Don't shut the one you love out; don't be afraid to care for them. Promise me that you won't shut Riku out to protect him."

"I…"

"Sora, Cloud!" Tifa came running toward them, "Hurry, we have to leave, there's a giant Nobody attacking the town."

"Tifa, where's Kairi? Is she ok?"

"She's fine, don't worry. Come on, everyone is on your Gummi ship."

"Huh? How'd you get on the ship?"

"The hatch was open, now hurry!"

Tifa and Sora turned and started running down the street, Sora looked back to make sure that Cloud was with them.

"Wait, Tifa stop, where's Cloud?"

They both turned and sprinted back to where Cloud was standing.

"Cloud did you hear me? Cloud!" Tifa walked up to Cloud and punched him, "Wake up Cloud! We have a situation here, I know that your heartbroken, I am too, but Aerith didn't die so you could just shut down and stop living. She died for YOU, she died so you could keep living and defeat Sephiroth, don't let her sacrifice go to waste."

"Tifa…"

"Come on!" Tifa grabbed Cloud's arm and started to drag him down the street.

Sora, Tifa and Cloud arrived at the Gummi ship only moments later. They quickly ran up the gangway and closed the hatch.

"Leon, were all here, lets get this boat in the air!"

As the Gummi ship took off, Sora looked out the window and saw the surface of the world bubbling. Angry red cracks appeared and then, the world known as Traverse Town exploded in a ball of red flame.

* * *

**Blabbing:**

Ah, such a dramatic chapter. For you clever people who noticed, I used some lines from advent children and FFVII.

Sorry that its so short, but school has pretty much beaten my creative spirit to death, so im sorry to say that this will be the last chapter I will post up until school is over (only 14 more days). So, Please leave some reviews because they make me uber happy. THANKS FOR READING!


	7. Side Story: Vegetable Special

**Blade of Light: Super Awesome Amazing Incredible Vegetable Special! **

**Authors Note:**

Hey all! Well, I'm to burnt out right now to do any real writing because I am incredably burnt out (and its incredibly painful to write because I've done SO MUCH OF IT in the past few weeks…grrr I HATE writing essays…), but I figured I shouldn't leave you hanging for the next week with no Sora and Riku, so thus spawned the Super Veggie Special. This technically came from a conversation Chelsea and I had in health a few weeks ago about the seventh chapter (where Sora quotes Chelsea about veggies), so I thought hey, why not make a small side story about vegetables while I try not to go crazy from school! AND there will be a small preview of the 7th chapter! W00t! So, here's your amazing vegetable story with a side of DRAMA!

(I really don't mind if you just skip the weird vegetable story because it sort of doesn't make much sense even if there is some cute SoraRiku fluff (which you won't be seeing until much later in the actual story, MWAHAHAH)…yeah...just go ahead and skip to the preview.)

* * *

"Hi my name is Sora, and this is the really hot and amazing…I mean this is my best friend Riku, and today we're going to talk about Vegetables!" 

Sora looked over at Riku to see the silver haired boy staring at him with a wistful look on his face.

"Pst…Riku its your line"

"Since Riku is to busy staring at Sora, I'll be taking over for him!" Roxas said as he pushed a drooling Riku aside.

"Hey! Roxas you can't take Riku's place! Your favorite vegetable doesn't contrast with mine like his does and besides, you aren't as hot and sex…I mean you aren't my best friend!" Sora whined as he tried to push Roxas off camera. "Besides, NO ONE likes cauliflower! Its just a broccoli wanna be!"

Upon hearing this, Roxas stormed off the stage muttering something about how broccoli should be annihilated.

"Anyway before I was RUDLY interrupted by that broccoli wanna be, I was about to introduce our first Vegetable guest star, Riku! Riku's favorite vegetable is carrots, why is that Riku?"

"I…uhh…well…because carrots are the best paring with broccoli of course," Riku said flashing a mischievous look at Sora, "which just happens to be your favorite vegetable, am I right?"

Sora blushed as Riku put his arm around him, "Well…yeah…"

"And why is that Sora?" Riku said in a seductive voice.

"Because they are like little trees! They're sooooo cute!"

"You really are clueless aren't you?" Riku said, an exasperated look on his face.

"Um…clueless about what?" Sora asked giving Riku a confused look.

Riku sighed and rolled his eyes, "About this," Riku pulled Sora into a deep kiss.

They finally broke apart, each gasping for breath.

"Riku…"

Riku smiled at Sora, "I've been wanting to do that for a long time."

Sora reached up and kissed Riku again, absorbing the warmth of his body. They remained standing there until they heard a small cough behind them. Sora broke away from the kiss to see his sister standing behind them.

"Kairi, I…"

"Um…no I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything. But I thought we were doing a special on vegetables? Everyone is waiting for you."

"Oh…uh…yeah…about that…"

"We're sorry Kairi, we just got…er…caught up in the moment, vegetables sure are…um…fascinating." Riku said pulling Sora closer to him.

"Riikuu…not now, we've got to host a show!" Sora whined.

"Oh alright, host your show."

"OK, now that all of our guest stars are here, lets get this vegetable-extravaganza going! And here they are now, our guest stars! Joining us is Roxas, Xemnas, Axel, Cloud, Leon, Kairi, and Saïx!" Sora turned to everyone, "Ok, first question, what's your favorite vegetable and why? Broccoli wanna b…I mean Roxas your up first!"

Roxas glared at Sora as the microphone was passed to him, "Well my favorite vegetable is cauliflower because well…I guess it's the antithesis of broccoli and could beat it any day."

"Thank you broccoli pose…Roxas, Xemnas your up next!"

"Spinach, because it will make me all powerful!"

"Axel?"

"Radish because it reflects my fiery nature, its got a sting to it, ya know?"

The "guest stars" listed off their favorite vegetables one by one, Cloud (artichoke), Leon (leek), and Kairi (turnip) until there was only one guest star left.

"And finally Saïx, what is your favorite vegetable and why?"

"Well I would have to say that my favorite vegetable is Asparagus because it's the best and most powerful of the vegetables."

Axel snickered, and Saïx turned and sneered, "What's so funny, traitor?"

"Oh, nothing, just the fact that you like ASSparagus is all. I think it's quite fitting."

Saïx glared at Axel and launched himself at him. As Saïx and Axel began to fight, two security guards came up and separated them.

"Uh…ok, now on to the final event, the Tomato Scout oath!"

"Wait, what?" Riku said, giving Sora skeptical look.

"The Tomato Scout oath! Don't you want to be a Tomato Scout with me Riku?" Sora asked, putting on his cutest pout.

"Oh, ok, I'd love to become a Tomato Scout with you Sora."

"Yaay! Ok everyone ready?" Sora said, turning to Kairi and the others.

"There's no way I'm becoming a Tomato Scout," Cloud mumbled, getting up from his chair and stalking off stage, a few moments later he reappeared being dragged back on stage by Tifa. "But Tif…"

"Nope, you're doing this, just deal with it."

Riku, looking angry at the disturbance in Sora's show, turned and glared at the rest of the guest stars.

"Does anyone else have a problem with the Tomato Scouts? 'Cause if they do, they are gonna have to face me!"

"Oh like that would be hard," Roxas sneered, glaring at Riku.

"Oh shut up broccoli poser, does anyone else have a problem with the Tomato Scouts?"

Wanting to get this over with, the rest of the guest stars shook their heads no.

"Good, ok Sora, take it away."

"Ok everyone repeat after me! I solemnly, solemnly, solemnly swear to be a good tomato. I will endeavor to do what is ripe. I promise to be firm, yet soft and juicy. I will honor the Great Tomato and do her will, even if it means fighting against the Government. Doop doop doop. Sing tomato, sing tomato, sing tomato, sing!"

After everyone had repeated the Tomato Scout oath, Sora turned back to the camera, "Ok everyone, that's all the time we have left for today! Thanks for watching the super vegetable special! And now the preview of Chapter 7!"

* * *

Riku looked down into the crystal with disbelief, "It can't be real," he thought, "Sora wouldn't forget me." 

"Its as real as you or me, this is no illusion."

"You're lying!"

"I swear to you, I am not."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because I showed you the truth, there are no lies between us. I showed you the truth because I felt that it was important for you to know. He doesn't really love you Riku."

"No…your wrong…Sora loves me."

"Then why isn't he out looking for you now? Why is he sitting happily around a table with others while you are prisoner in this fortress? Face it Riku, you no longer exist to him."

"But…no I can't be true…why…why would he forget about me?"

"The heart is a fickle thing Riku, you can never trust it. The door is always open Riku, if you ever choose to join us. If you ever want revenge, just come and talk to me. If there is ever anything you need, just ask, we're you family Riku, we care about you."

"I…just want to be alone right now…"

"Very well, I'll have Saïx show you to your room. No reason to make you stay in the dungeon, seeing as you're family."

As if on queue, Saïx walked into the study and waited for Riku to follow him. Riku took one last look into the crystal before he left.

"Good bye Sora," he thought trying to hold back his tears, "Even if you've forgotten about me, I'll never forget about you. I'll always love you, no matter what."

He followed Saïx out of the study and down a wooden paneled corridor. Riku almost ran into Saïx when he stopped outside a fancy looking double door.

"Here's your room, will you be needing anything else?"

"No…thank you."

Saïx left as Riku opened the door to see a large well-furnished room before him. Across the room were several large picture windows that overlooked the city. Riku closed the door and walked across to the windows. His mind raced as he looked out over the dark, rainy city. He glared as he became angrier and angrier that Sora had betrayed him, no broken his heart. As Riku stood at the window, darkness began swirling around him, and before he was completely engulfed by it, a single tear ran down his face.

* * *

"AWW, Riku, you though that I didn't love you anymore?" 

"Well, you weren't exactly busting you butt to try and find me, how was I supposed to know what you had been through I was stuck in that dungeon!"

"Ok, Ok, but seriously I'll always love you, ok?"

Riku smiled, "Ok, Sora, and I'll always love you."

Sora smiled up at Riku and gave him a quick kiss, "Alright, well that's the end of our Super Vegetable Special, thanks for reading!"

* * *

**Blabbing: **

Wow…that turned out A LOT weirder then I thought, although I was happy that I could sneak in some SoraRiku fluff among the vegetable weirdness. This is what happens when you're stressed out over school, your brain gets fixated on vegetables. Again, I'm sorry for not being able to update, but right now I just don't have the brainpower, I promise to write a ton for you guys this summer! So, I hope you at least enjoyed the small preview of chapter seven, review if you want Thanks for Reading!

Oh, and the Tomato Scout oath belongs to Jason Webly, I included it on request by Chelsea because she is a Jason Webly fan and I thought it fit in with the general theme of vegetables.


	8. Tension Rising

**Blade of Light: Tension Rising**

**Date started: 5.21.06**

**Date finished: 6.18.06  
**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or Final Fantasy. The dialogue in Clouds memory belongs to the people at Square Enix.

**Author's Note:  
**Ah it feels soo good to be done with school. I don't really have much to say about Chapter 7, just that this is where the vegetable stuff came from. The quote about how vegetables are crunchy is from my friend Chelsea. So, enjoy! R and R please.

* * *

_Cloud was standing on the battlements of Radiant Garden, looking out over the mountains and valleys. Every now and then he saw a small bands of heartless prowling around in the mist. _

"_Is something wrong?" A gentle hand touched his shoulder.  
_

_Cloud turned to see Aerith standing behind him, "It's nothing," he said turning back to the battlements. _

_Aerith joined him in looking out over the hills. _

"_Hmmm...?" she asked in a playfully pushy tone._

_  
"I don't want you involved." _

"_You mean you don't want me there when you go away again?"_

_Cloud looked over at Aerith, noticing how she sounded hurt. _

_  
"I just - Listen, even if I go far away, I'll come back." _

_  
"Do you mean it?"_

"_Yeah." Cloud said as he looked away. _

_  
"See? You don't look so sure. Well, okay, I understand. Go - get things settled." _

_  
"Huh?" _

_  
"No matter how far away you are... once you find your light... I'm sure it will lead you back here again. Right?"_

"_I suppose." _

"_So I'll stay here - and I'll cheer for you - Okay, Cloud?"_

"Okay Cloud? Cloud? Hey are you even listening to me?"

Cloud looked up to see Tifa standing over him.

"Uh…sorry, what were you asking me?"

Tifa sighed and sat down next to Cloud at the table. "I was asking you if were ok with sleeping on the couch until we find a bigger safe house."

It had been a week since Traverse Town had been destroyed and they had just finished getting settled in their old safe house in Radiant Garden. But with so many people living in the house, it was starting to get crowded. Even when Sora left there still wouldn't be enough rooms for everyone to sleep in.

"Oh, sure that's fine."

Cloud leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes; it didn't matter to him where he slept, he hadn't slept well since Aerith's death anyway. They had gone to the City of the Ancients to put her spirit at rest, since then Cloud had been mostly keeping to himself.

"Dilly Dally, Shilly Shally."

Cloud opened his eyes and looked at Tifa, "what?"

"Dilly Dally, Shilly Shally!"

"Tifa, will you stop talking nonsense, its not going to cheer me up."

"You've got to let go Cloud! We are still in danger; you can't keep sulking in your own little world! You still have to fight, if your just going to go sulk in a corner and pretend nothing else exists, Sephiroth might as well show up and kill you right now! Aerith died so you could go on living, not so you could shut down and isolate yourself. So which is it Cloud? A memory, or us?"

"Mm…"

"I think she wants you to move on," Leon said as he entered the kitchen.

"Who asked you Squall?" Cloud said angrily as he got up and started towards the door.

"Hold on there," Leon said, grabbing Clouds shoulder, "Sora and Kairi want to go to the market and get some food for tonight, I think they want to have a 'family' dinner before Sora leaves. Even though we're safer here in Radiant Garden, we can't let those two go wandering around alone. Since we're all busy trying to find a new safe house, I thought that you could escort them."

"I'm not a babysitter Squall! Besides, I'm no good with kids."

"HEEEY! Who are you calling kids!" Sora whined, having heard what Cloud said as he walked into the kitchen.

"I'm calling you a kid, because its what you are."

"But I'm 15!"

"See, your still a kid. Anyway, I'm not taking you to the market, just use the food that's here."

"But Cloud!" Sora whined.

"No."

"Pleessee?"

"No."

"Sora are you ready to go?" Kairi asked as she entered the kitchen.

"Kairi!" Sora whined, "Cloud said that he won't take us to the market!"

"Cloud, why won't you take us? We really wanted to make a huge farewell feast for Sora. It would really mean a lot to me if you would take us, this might be the last time I'll see Sora for a long time. Will you please take us Cloud?"

Cloud looked down sheepishly, "Fine, I'll take you."

Sora immediately brightened up, "YAY! Come on lets go, we have to get there before they run out of food!"

"Sora, don't be silly, we have plenty of time, besides we have to wait for Cloud."

"No, you two go on ahead, I'll be along in a minute."

"Ok, come on Kairi I want a sea salt ice cream!"

Sora pulled Kairi out the door, leaving Cloud standing in the kitchen with Tifa and Leon.

"I swear they set me up for that one," Cloud said, sighing as he collected his Buster blade.

"Aw, come on Cloud, some fresh air will do you good," Tifa said smiling.

"Yeah, just make sure that you aren't gone too long, ok?" Leon added, "take care of those two, I don't think they know how much danger that their in."

"Don't worry MOTHER, I won't let anyone touch a hair on their heads, and I'll make sure they play nice with all the other kids." Cloud said as he walked out the door.

* * *

"Kairi, can we get some broccoli?" Sora asked, as they wandered down the crowded streets of the market. 

"Sure, this is your big dinner after all."

"Yay! Do you like broccoli Cloud?" Sora asked, turning to talk to a sulking Cloud.

"I don't like vegetables," Cloud mumbled, "Do you have to act so childish? Your 15, at least act like your older then 10. Honestly, you're supposed to be the Keyblade master."

"Aw, how can you not like vegetables? They are so crunchy and good!"

"I just don't like 'em ok? What is this twenty questions?"

"Sora, stop bugging Cloud, here you can help me pick out what kind of Tofu you want."

Cloud sighed as Sora wandered off to pick out Tofu for their dinner. He didn't notice that Kairi was watching him with a worried expression on her face.

"Um, Cloud?"

"Mm, what?"

"I…I think that you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You shouldn't let the past rule your future, you know?"

"But can't you argue that your past is your future?"

"Letting the past rule your future doesn't change what happened in the past. Nothing can change what has happened, but you can change what will happen, like a second chance."

"I don't deserve a second chance, I don't even deserve to be allowed to change my future. I already wrecked someone else's future, why should I get a chance to shape mine? I'm just living on borrowed time, let someone else have my future."

"But…Aerith died so you could have your future, don't you want to honor her wish?"

"Hmm…more then you know."

"Kairi! I found the Tofu I want!" Sora came marching back carrying the Tofu that he had chosen.

"Oh Sora, this Tofu is so expensive. We don't have enough munny to pay for it and still get everything else that we need."

Sora's face fell as he started to take the Tofu back; Cloud put a hand of Sora's shoulder to stop him.

"Uh, don't worry about the bill Kairi…I'll pay for it."

"Cloud…we couldn't." Sora said, looking at Cloud with a surprised look on his face.

"No, I…want you guys to have this dinner, its…important to you. It may be the last time we see Sora for a long time, so…don't worry about the cost, ok?"

"Thank you Cloud," Kairi said, smiling.

"And Sora, I like artichokes…there my favorite vegetable."

Sora's face lit up with excitement, "OK, artichokes it is then!"

* * *

Riku lifted his head as the door opened; he shivered at the sudden rush of air. Standing in the door was Saïx, wearing a most unpleasant grin on his face. 

"You, boy, come with me."

"What do you want Saïx?" Axel asked, glaring.

"That is none of your concern, traitor. I only came for him," he said, pointing at Riku. "Now, come with me."

Riku got up and followed Saïx out of the cell and towards a part of the fortress that he had never seen before.

"Where are you taking me?"

"To see Lord Xemnas, he has something to show you."

"Oh, so its LORD Xemnas now?"

"If you continue with that attitude, your little friends life wont be spared for much longer."

Saïx lead him to a door in a softly lit corridor, "He is waiting for you inside."

Riku entered through the doors to find himself in a library of sorts. Large bookcases that housed many books lined the walls. In the center of the room, there was a large wooden table that was partially covered with papers, at one end sat Xemnas and at the other a large crystal was displayed on a stand. As Riku entered the room, Xemnas looked up from his work.

"Ah, Riku, how nice to see you again."

"What do you want Xemnas?" Riku asked cautiously.

"I just wanted to chat, honestly you act as if I have some hidden motive."

"To chat huh? What exactly did you want to chat about?"

"I wanted to chat about your friend, the key barer. What kind of person is he? Is he looking for you now? You know, just general information."

"Of course he's looking for me!" Riku yelled angrily, "Sora would never leave me in a place like this!"

"Heh, don't be to sure, come look."

Xemnas stood up from his chair and approached the crystal at the other end of the table.

"Show me the key barer."

The crystal glowed a bright blue and then an image appeared in it. Riku moved closer to see Sora and Kairi sitting around a large table with five or six other people. Everyone looked happy as they sat around and feasted on all the food that crowded the table.

"Yes, it looks like he is working _very _hard to find you. Face it Riku, he has moved on, you are no more then a painful memory to him."

Riku looked down into the crystal with disbelief, "It can't be real," he thought, "Sora wouldn't forget me."

"Its as real as you or me, this is no illusion."

"You're lying!"

"I swear to you, I am not."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because I showed you the truth, there are no lies between us. I showed you the truth because I felt that it was important for you to know. He doesn't really love you Riku."

"No…your wrong…Sora loves me."

"Then why isn't he out looking for you now? Why is he sitting happily around a table with others while you are prisoner in this fortress? Face it Riku, you no longer exist to him."

"But…no I can't be true…why…why would he forget about me?"

"The heart is a fickle thing Riku, you can never trust it. The door is always open Riku, if you ever choose to join us. If you ever want revenge, just come and talk to me. If there is ever anything you need, just ask, we're you family Riku, we care about you."

"I…just want to be alone right now…"

"Very well, I'll have Saïx show you to your room. No reason to make you stay in the dungeon, seeing as you're family."

As if on queue, Saïx walked into the study and waited for Riku to follow him. Riku took one last look into the crystal before he left.

"Good bye Sora," he thought trying to hold back his tears, "Even if you've forgotten about me, I'll never forget about you. I'll always love you, no matter what."

He followed Saïx out of the study and down a wooden paneled corridor. Riku almost ran into Saïx when he stopped outside a fancy looking double door.

"Here's your room, will you be needing anything else?"

"No…thank you."

Saïx left as Riku opened the door to see a large well-furnished room before him. Across the room were several large picture windows that overlooked the city. Riku closed the door and walked across to the windows. His mind raced as he looked out over the dark, rainy city. He glared as he became angrier and angrier that his best friend had betrayed him, no broken his heart. As Riku stood at the window, darkness began swirling around him, and before he was completely engulfed by it, a single tear ran down his face.

Xemnas watched Riku through his crystal, an evil grin spreading on his face.

"It worked, just as you said it would."

Another figure stepped out of the shadow, "Of course it did," the figure said as it joined Xemnas at the crystal. "Now we can use him to lure the keymaster to us."

"I must say I didn't think you had it in you Roxas, but I was wrong, you obviously know what your doing."

"I can't take all the credit," Roxas said smiling, "I learned everything I know from you, Lord Xemnas."

* * *

**Blabbing:**

DUN DUN DUUNN! Oh no! Riku's gone over to the dark side! What will happen next!

You guys rock! Thanks for reading! Leave some reviews because its awsome when you do!


	9. The End of the World

**Blade of Light: The End of the World**

**A/N: **

Sorry for the wait, but it was over 100 for like three days (and then around 95 the rest of the week) and I have no air conditioning so I was hiding in my basement. This is sorta an informal posting until I have time to properly post it. I just thought that you'd wanna read it as soon as possible. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who left a comment or just read! This is deffinatly one of the darkest chapters i've ever written. Read and Review pls!

* * *

Sora sighed and sat back in his seat aboard the Gummi ship. 

"Are we there yet?" he complained, leaning up towards the command module where Donald sat.

"NO! Just be patient!" Donald said exasperated.

"But Donald, I'm bored! Can I at least drive the ship? Come on, you never let me pilot the ship!"

"No, remember last time we let you pilot? YOU ALMOST CRASHED INTO AN ASTEROID!"

"Aw, that wasn't my fault, I didn't see that heartless ship coming!"

"If you hadn't been speeding around you would have had time to take care of the heartless AND avoided the asteroid. Just relax, we'll be there in an hour or so."

Sora sank back into his sit with an angry look on his face and muttered, "I can't wait an hour or so, what if Riku is gone by then?"

He sighed and stared out the window to his right. A day ago, King Mickey had interrupted their family dinner to tell Sora that there had been an Organization member sighted at The End of the World. Sora had insisted that they launch immediately and now they were on their way to find the Organization member. Sora didn't know why, but as he had been sitting around the table with everyone, he felt as if someone had ripped out a piece of his heart, he felt like a part of him was gone. He knew that something bad must have happened to Riku.

Sora looked worriedly out the window, "Please let Riku be ok," he whispered.

After a while, the world known as the End of The World loomed out of the darkness. Donald turned off the engines and the Gummi ship floated there, gleaming in the little light that the world gave off.

"Why aren't you landing the ship?" Sora demanded, leaning toward the command module, "We can't waste anytime, we have to save Riku!"

"But Sora, we don't even know if Riku is there with the Organization member," Goofy said, looking worriedly at Sora.

"I know," Sora said, staring at the ground, "but what if we could find out where Riku is from this guy? Something has happened to him, what if he's hurt! What if he's dying!"

"And what if it's a trap?" Donald chimed in, "This could be exactly what the Organization wants. We could be playing right into the Organizations hands. We promised the King that we would be careful."

"LAND THE SHIP DONALD!" Sora yelled, glaring at him angrily.

Donald and Goofy looked at Sora with a surprised look, they had never seen him so angry before.

"Land…NOW!"

Donald glared at Sora but started to prepare the ship to land, as Sora sank back into his seat.

"I hope you know what your doing Sora," Goofy muttered, looking back at the sulking boy.

As soon as the ship landed, Sora got up and started for the hatch but was intercepted by Donald and Goofy.

"What are you doing!" He demanded, trying to push past.

"We need to talk Sora," Donald said.

"Now! Can't we talk after we find this Organization person?"

"No, Sora, we need to talk now," Goofy said.

"Sora, what you did back there was out of line," Donald said, glaring at Sora, "We can't trust you to deal with the Organization if you're blindly running into a situation. If you continue to make brash actions, we will have to take you back to Hallow Bastion."

"What! You can't take me back to Hallow Bastion! I can't believe you're treating me like a little kid!"

"Sora, you gotta understand, we don't want you to go back to Hallow Bastion. But we promised King Mickey that we wouldn't let you take any unnecessary risks." Goofy said, putting his hand on Sora's shoulder.

"Yeah? What about my promises? What about Riku? I promised that what ever it took, I would save him."

"We know that you wanna save Riku Sora, trust us, we want to too. But we have to take precaution, we have no idea what the Organization has planned beyond what we already know, we can't take them lightly. So, just don't be reckless, ok?" Donald said, turning to open the hatch.

"Besides Sora, didn't you promise the King that you wouldn't take any rash actions in your search for Riku?" Goofy asked looking at Sora.

"Yeah, yeah," Sora muttered, following Donald out of the hatch, "but I don't think I'll be keeping that promise for long."

* * *

A hooded Organization member opened the door to the dungeon corridor and was met with a blast of cold, dank air. Shivering at the sudden blast of air, he slipped through the heavy metal door and closed it behind him. Shifting the tray that he was carrying he pulled out a key card from the pocket of his black coat and unlocked one of the cells. As he opened the cell door, a moan came from behind it. 

"Geeze it's about time you brought me some food, I thought I was going to have to eat my arm."

The stranger looked up to see a red head named Axel sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor. He walked over to the red head and set the tray of food on the floor in front of him. He was about to leave when he heard Axel address him.

"What you're not going to sit down and chat?"

The hooded stranger turned again to see the red head looking at him with a quizzical look on his face.

"I thought you were so hungry you were going to eat yourself."

"Well, maybe I wasn't THAT hungry," Axel peered into the strangers hood, trying to see his face, "Who are you? You're voice seems familiar but I just can't place it. I guess you must be new; they wouldn't have given such a low job to a senior member."

"You're lucky I brought you food at all you miserable traitor."

The stranger could see a flash of angry pass through the red heads eyes and saw his muscles tense. In a flash of red hair Axel launched himself at the mysterious stranger to attack him, but he was ready. The hooded stranger caught Axel by the neck and held him suspended above the floor. Dark energy coursed through his arm as he continued to strangle Axel. Axel screamed as the dark energy touched him. The stranger drew back his free arm, a ball of black energy formed in his hand. Letting go of Axel he threw the ball of energy strait at the red heads stomach. The ball exploded, and Axel was thrown backward. He hit the wall with a sickening crunch and lay in a crumpled heap on the floor.

Axel lifted his head and was horrified at what he saw. In all the commotion, the strangers hood had been blown free of his face. Standing in the doorway, a smirk on his face was Riku.

"Ri..ku?" Axel asked, not wanting to believe what he was seeing.

But Riku didn't answer; he just smiled, turned and drew the hood around his head once again as he walked out of the cell. Axel heard the lock click shut before he passed out.

* * *

Sora sank to the ground exhausted, "Why did the Organization choose to hide in a place like this? It's like trying to find light in the realm of darkness." 

"Well…uh, that probably why they chose it," Goofy said, sitting down next to Sora.

"Haha, very funny."

"Come on you two! Lets get a move on, this place gives me the creeps!" Donald spluttered, crossing his arms and tapping his foot.

"Aw come on Donald, I'm tired, let me at least catch my breath!"

"Oh awright, but we need to keep moving, you never know when the Organization will show up."

"Hopefully they'll attack us and we won't have to go wandering around this place anymore." Sora said, leaning back on one of the random floating rocks.

"You should be careful what you wish for."

Sora, Donald and Goofy turned around to see two black hooded figures. The first was unrecognizable, with long silver hair and a black blindfold covering his eyes, as Sora looked at him he couldn't help but feel like they had met before. Sora then looked towards the black hooded figure that had addressed them.

"R-Roxas?" Sora stammered, surprised to see his Twilight Town friend.

"Hello Sora, who're your little friends? Donald and Goofy I presume?"

"W-what are you doing here? And why are you with the Organization? And who is he!"

"Oh I'm here to see you of course, the mighty key bearer. Of course I'm also here to take your heart and complete Kingdom Hearts, but that can wait. Besides, I'll need your sister too." Roxas smirked and turned to the mysterious figure that stood behind him, "And I won't bother telling you who he is right now, I'm certain you'll find out later."

"You leave my sister out of this!" Sora glared at Roxas, he couldn't believe that his friend would do something like this to him.

"Oh I seem to have hit a soft spot, maybe we should take your sister first. I'm sure Kingdom Hearts doesn't care which heart it gets first. Where is your sister Sora?" Roxas let out a cold laugh, "I'm sure she's not in Traverse Town anymore."

"You…it was you who destroyed Traverse Town!"

"Well, I can't take all the credit. It was Sephiroth who found you after all, honestly, I had no idea where you ran off to after your airship exploded."

"You're the one who sent the army of nobodies?"

Roxas sighed and rubbed his forehead, "YES! Ok? Yes, everything that has happened to your miserable ass since you left Twilight Town I am fully responsible for. I was hoping that after you survived the airship explosion you would come slinking back to Twilight Town and try to seek comfort in those idiots you call your friends, but I was wrong."

"My…friends! What did you do to them!"

"Oh don't bother, they've already been taken care of."

Sora tried launched himself at Roxas but was stopped by both Donald and Goofy.

"LET GO!" Sora yelled at them in desperation.

"Sora, calm down! You can't just rush in like this, did Hercules and Phil teach you nothing?" Donald asked, trying to keep his hold on the flailing boy, "You never rush into a fight, you never make the first move!"

Sora glared at both of them, but stopped fighting to break free.

"Yes Sora, listen to your friends, don't want to disobey the King and his little lackeys do we? Or," Roxas said, looking Sora in the eye, "maybe you're just a coward?"

Before Donald or Goofy could grab him again, Sora launched him self at the other boy with a yell of fury. He swung his keyblade down towards Roxas's head, preparing to land a critical blow. The other boy just smirked and blocked the attack effortlessly by summoning a keyblade.

Sora stood there with a look of surprise on his face, "A…keyblade?"

He was so surprised that he didn't see Roxas attack with a second keyblade. Sora was thrown backward, landing on his back. Before Sora could recover, Roxas launched himself into the air and brought one of his keyblades down on Sora. Sora rolled away at the last second and jumped to his feet preparing to attack Roxas while he was off balance, but as soon as he had made it back on his feet Roxas began assaulting him with a volley of blows. Unable to block both keyblades, Sora tried to dodge the blows but his efforts where in vain when he found himself up against and invisible barrier. Looking around franticly, he saw that the other hooded figure had set up a barrier separating him from Donald and Goofy and trapping him with Roxas.

Roxas! Sora had forgotten about the boy when he had discovered the barrier. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the flash of a keyblade heading towards his head. Sora dived and felt the keyblade pass over his head, but he had forgotten that Roxas had two keyblades and almost instantly felt the other one cut into him and throw him back to the barrier. He hit the barrier with a crack, and fell to the ground. Mind reeling, Sora struggled to get back to his feet but was knocked back by another volley of blows.

Desperately trying to find cover, Sora curled into a little ball. He could feel blood running down his face and out of his mouth. He felt like there were a dozen needles stinging him all over his body, he ached in a million places. His head throbbed as blood started gushing from a new cut on his forehead. Sora could feel himself slipping away; he struggled desperately to stay awake.

"Is this what its like to die?" he thought, eyes closed, "I feel like I'm watching my self from above. I want to give into the blackness, to just slip away, but…I can't…not yet…Riku…."

Suddenly, the blows stopped falling. Sora cracked open his swollen eyes to see that the strange blindfolded boy was standing between him and Roxas. He could see Roxas, panting, sweat running down his face and a murderous gleam in his eyes, standing on the other side of the boy.

"What are you doing!" He screamed at the blindfolded boy, "This is it! We are one hit away from having his heart!"

"Leave him Roxas, its not the right time."

"That voice…" Sora thought, struggling to stay conscious.

Roxas glared at the blindfolded boy, but banished his Keyblades in a puff of black smoke. Pushing the blindfolded boy aside, he stood over Sora.

"Let this be a warning key bearer, we are only interested in your heart. Next time we meet, I wont hesitate to kill you." Roxas kicked Sora one last time before turning to the blindfolded boy, "You are to kind, the boss won't be happy about this you know."

"I apologize sir, but to kill him now would be such a waste."

"I'm wondering where your loyalties lie," Roxas said, giving the blindfolded boy a cold look. "Maybe we shouldn't have taken you out of that dungeon."

"My loyalties are to you and Lord Xemnas"

"Then prove it, use your dark energy on him."

"But sir, we can't kill him, Lord Xem..."

"Oh I don't want you to kill him, just teach him a lesson, he's not as lucky as he thinks he is."

As the blindfolded boy turned to Sora, Sora could see a dark mass start to form in his hand. Suddenly it hit him full on; it was like nothing he had ever experienced before. He felt as if he was on fire, he could feel the dark energy course threw him as he writhed on the ground.

"That's enough," he heard Roxas say from somewhere beyond the darkness that had begun to close in on him, "I think he's suffered enough for one day."

Slowly, Sora felt the fire fade away from his body. He felt strangely numb, struggling to turn his head; he forced his eyes open to take one last look at the blindfolded boy. He couldn't tell why, but he knew that he had seen him before…and that voice, he knew that he had heard that voice before.

Before he lost consciousness he looked up to see the blindfolded boy standing over him.

"Riku?"

But he blinked and the boy was gone, and then he was falling, deeper and deeper into the darkness

* * *

**Blabbing:**

OH MY, Riku has turned out quite the little evil minion. I almost like him more this way...of course he hates Sora now so...nya. I hoped you ejoyed it, sorry if there's gramatical stuff, but I can't really bother the person who usually edits right now so, y'all are just going to have to deal. Leave some reviews!

Oh, and go watch Gunparade March because its AMAZING


	10. Desire For All That Is Lost

**Blade of Light: Desire For All That Is Lost  
**

**Date started: 7.12.06**

**Date finished: 7.16.06**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, but Roxas's maniacal plot! YAY ME! **

**Authors note: **

Hmm…well I decided to learn how to play the acoustic version of Simple and Clean on my guitar, but sadly I never really finished learning how to play guitar. So it didn't turn out so well. But it's such a pretty and sad song that I was inspired to write the next chapter, lucky you! Before I start, I just want to say thank you thank you thank you to everyone who left me a super awesome comment on chapter 8 because that chapter drove me insane, so I really appreciate everyone's feed back. Also thank you to everyone who reads this story and who has commented in the past, it means a lot. So, please enjoy and review!

* * *

"I feel like…I'm floating," Sora thought his eyes closed, "Where am I?" 

Sora opened his eyes and looked up to see a cloudless azure sky. Standing up, he realized that he was in the ocean. He scanned the horizon and saw an island with a sparkling white beach that made way to tree covered hills. As he started wading towards the shore, he could see that there were tree houses and wooden walkways built in and around the trees. He could also see a smaller island connected to the larger one by a bridge.

"This place…" he whispered as he made it to the beach, "I feel like I've been here before."

"Sora!" A voice yelled from behind him.

Sora turned to see a small boy with silver hair running down the beach.

"Riku?" Sora muttered with disbelief.

"Sora! Hey Sora, wait up!"

Sora looked down just in time to see a smaller version of himself running right into him.

"Wha-?" he managed to say before he was knocked over.

"Hey misters watch where you're going!" The small brown haired boy said, picking himself up and dusting the sand off his clothes.

"Oh, I'm uh, sorry. I didn't see you coming," Sora said staring mesmerized at the younger version of himself.

"Finally," the silver haired boy said as he caught up with the younger Sora, "I thought you'd never stop." The silver haired boy noticed the older Sora and peered down at him with an interested look on his face, "Hey who's this?"

"I'm uh…Cloud," Sora said, staring up at the two boys nervously, "Cloud Strife, who are you?"

"I'm Sora!" Said the brown haired one proudly, "And this is my best friend Riku."

"How's it going?" The silver haired boy asked.

Sora looked at the boys, "how could this be happening? Is this a dream?" he wondered, "Is this my memory playing tricks on me? Or is it real? or not?"

"Hey mister? Are you ok?"

Sora was pulled out of his thoughts, and turned to see the younger Riku looking at him with a concerned look.

"What? Oh, I…I'm fine…." Sora was startled at how the younger version of Riku seemed to really care about him.

"Riku, hurry, Kairi's waiting at the cove!" The younger Sora, said pulling on Riku's arm.

"Are you sure you're ok mister?" Riku asked, still looking concerned.

"Yeah…" Sora said, "You boy's better go meet your friend, I'm sure she doesn't like to be kept waiting."

The two boys turned and started to walk towards the cove.

"Wait," Sora called to the boys.

"Yeah mister Cloud?" Riku said turning around.

"I know that we just met, but could you promise me something?"

"I guess," the younger Sora said, giving Sora a skeptical look.

"Promise me that you'll always be friends, no mater what happens. Promise me that you'll always be there for each other, ok?"

"That's a silly thing to make us promise," the younger Sora said, walking over to Sora and plopping down in front of him. "Why wouldn't we always be friends?"

"Just…say that you will ok?"

The younger Riku came over and sat next to the younger Sora.

"Of course we will, right Sora?"

"Right!" The younger Sora gave Sora a curious look, "Do you have a best friend mister Cloud?"

"I…I don't know anymore." Sora said, looking at the ground so the two younger boys wouldn't see the tears that started to form in his eyes.

"Sora, Riku!"

Sora looked up to see a young red headed girl whom he recognized to be his sister, coming down the beach towards them.

"Kairi!" the younger Sora said, standing up.

As the two boys got up and ran towards the red headed girl, the younger Sora turned around and waved back at Sora, "Bye mister Cloud!"

Sora waved back, holding back tears as he watched the boys disappear down the beach. Getting up, he dusted the sand off his clothes, and took a look around. The island was totally deserted, "Everyone must have gone home for the day," he thought, shielding his eyes from the setting sun. Sora walked to the edge of the water, and stared out over the ocean.

"Will things ever be like that again?" he wondered, closing his eyes, "Will I ever see Riku again? And what about that weird blindfolded boy, who was he? I don't know why, but I'm almost afraid to find out. For some reason he reminded me of Riku, but Riku would never hurt me like that…would he?"

Sora opened his eyes to see the blindfolded boy standing in front of him, horrified, he tried to take a step backward, but found that he was standing on the edge of a precipice. He looked back towards the blindfolded boy to see a giant wave towering over him. The blindfolded boy reached up and pulled off the blindfold to reveal two stunning blue eyes, Riku's eyes.

"No…" Sora said, aghast, "No, he can't be Riku, it can't be true."

The giant wave had reached them, and crashed down upon them like a building. Sora managed to not fall off the edge, but was knocked back and started to lose his balance. The water was swirling around him, threatening to push him off the edge.

"Riku!" Sora screamed to the other boy, "Riku, please help me!"

The blindfolded boy only smirked back at Sora, and reached out his hand to him. Sora struggled towards the boy, reaching out his hand. Finally he felt the blindfolded boys hand grasp his. Suddenly he was at the edge of the precipice again, teetering on the edge, the blindfolded boy the only keeping him from falling. And then the blindfolded boy let go, and Sora was falling, deeper and deeper into darkness.

* * *

Sora woke up in a room filled with sunlight; he tried to sit up but realized that he couldn't feel his body. Panicking he tried desperately to move any part of his body but only succeeded in wigging his leg a little. He felt something move at the end of his bed, looking down he saw that Kairi was resting her head on his legs. 

"Kairi," he managed to croak out.

His sister lifted her head groggily and rubbed her eyes, "Sora?" Turning to look at him, her face suddenly lit up. "Sora! Thank god, I thought you would never wake up." She got up and came to sit next to him.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, pushing back the hair from his eyes.

"Not much of anything right now," he said closing his eyes again. "Kairi, I can't feel my body."

"Oh Sora…" Kairi looked at him with a frightened look, "Let me go get Tifa, I'll be right back…"

"Wait, Kairi, I had this dream…or a memory…I don't know what it was."

"What happened in it?" Kairi asked, still looking frightened.

"I was back home, on Destiny Islands, or at least I think I was. I…I saw all of us, as kids."

"You and me and Riku?"

"Yes, I actually got knocked over by myself. It was so weird, it was like I was watching a memory play out but at the same time I was part of it. And then I saw the blindfolded boy…"

"He's the one who showed up with Roxas, isn't he?"

"Yeah…wait how do you know about Roxas?"

"Donald and Goofy told me, he's the one who did this to you, right?"

"Mostly, but the blindfolded boy, he stopped Roxas from killing me."

"Yeah, and then he turned around and almost killed you. It's not exactly helping you out if you ask me."

Yeah, but…in my dream or memory, or what ever it was, he was Riku."

"That's just your mind playing tricks on you Sora…it couldn't have been Riku."

"I wish I could believe that, but when I saw him with Roxas, there was something about him that seemed so familiar…"

"Sora, I'm sure that it was just your mind's way of dealing with the physical damage you took. I'm going to go get Tifa," Kairi said starting to get up.

"Don't bother, I heard you two talking and decided to come and check up on Sora. How are you feeling?" Tifa, walked into the room carrying a large tray of food.

"I can't feel anything, my body is completely numb. Am I going to be ok?" Sora asked with a panicked expression.

"Yes, you're going to be fine. Your body is still in shock but in a few hours you should regain feeling in you body." Tifa set the tray down on the bedside table and looked down at Sora, "Although, I'm sure that when you do you'll wish that you hadn't."

"Oh and why is that?" Sora asked, confused.

"Well, from where I'm standing you look like one big giant bruise. I don't think there's a part of you that isn't black and blue."

Sora heard Kairi giggle at this, "Hey, its not funny! I almost got killed!"

"Oh, Sora, I know that you almost got killed but you should have a look at yourself. Most of you is covered in bandages, and what's not covered is purple and green."

"I still don't see how that's funny."

"Ok enough you two, Kairi, why don't we leave Sora to rest. You can come help me and Yuffie gather information on The World the Never Was, Cid was able to restore Ansem's computer."

Kairi rolled her eyes, but got up from the bed, "Oh, that just sounds like oodles of fun."

"Hey, what about me?" Sora asked, "I'm hungry."

"So, I brought you some food, eat it." Tifa said.

"But I can't move!" Said Sora, becoming pouty, "How am I supposed to rest if I can't eat a wholesome meal?"

"The food is to motivate you, the more you try to move your body, the more you'll bring it out of shock. Its obviously worked for your mouth."

"Hey…what happened to rest? Hel-lo! I'm injured, I need R and R!"

"You don't have time for R and R, do you not remember WHY you're in this state? You don't have time to lie around; you've got to get better now! The Organization is getting stronger as we speak, especially with their new addition. You need to be ready to fight!" Tifa turned and started to walk out to door.

"Feel better Sora," Kairi said, patting Sora on the head, "I'll be back later, ok?"

"Ok..." Sora said.

Sora laid his head back on the pillow and pouted as Tifa and Kairi left the room. Feeling his stomach rumble, he looked at the tray of food with a forlorn look on his face.

"Aww man, this bites," Sora thought as he tried to will his body to move towards the tray.

* * *

"Ugh...why do I have to come down stairs for dinner?" Sora winced as he stood up from the bed. Throwing his arm over Kairi's shoulder, he pulled himself into a standing position. 

"Tifa insisted that you get out of bed, besides, I think Leon wants to have a word with you." Kairi said as she helped her brother to the door and down the stairs.

"Hey, look who it is," Cid exclaimed as Sora and Kairi entered the kitchen, "Looking good kid, how'd ya feel?"

"I wish my body was still numb," Sora said, as Kairi helped him to a seat at the kitchen table.

"Haha, well now we can begin your healing process."

"I don't like the sound of that," Sora said, trying to get comfortable in the wooden chair.

The front door opened and everyone turned to see Leon and Cloud burst into the kitchen.

"Good, everyone's here," Leon said, brushing the hair out of his eyes, "We've got a situation."

"What kind of situation?" Cid asked looking worried.

"The Organization seems to have hacked into the computer system, they've completely taken over the security system and are trying to hack into the core as we speak." Cloud gasped trying to catch his breath.

"Computer system? Security? Core?" Sora asked giving Cloud a confused look.

"You look like hell," Cloud said, giving Sora a sympathetic look.

"Oh thank you, I was going for the "I just got the shit beaten out of me" look, but I guess I just pull of the "looking like hell" look better. And you didn't answer my question."

"Oh right, sorry," Cloud said giving Sora a sheepish look, "We discovered Ansem's computer and found that we can control the town's security system with it. It also contains all of Ansem's research, which is very important."

"The town's security system? Why is that important?"

"The system is programed to destroy the Heartless and recently we have programmed it to destroy the Nobodies too, but if they control the system they can reprogram it to destroy whoever they want it to. It's madness out there."

"And why is the core so important to you if they already took over the security system?"

"Because there is a world with in the computer, the core is the worlds heart. If they get the core, they will have won another world's heart, thus making them stronger. They are getting two worlds for the price of one this way. They get Space Paranoids, and Radiant Garden."

"Radiant Garden?"

"It's the real name of this world, turns out that Hallow Bastion is just the name of the castle. But enough explanation, we have to act now, otherwise the worlds known as Radiant Garden and Space Paranoids will be lost. It seems that the Organization is not interested in taking over the worlds, but destroying them."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Cid asked, standing up and grabbing his spear, "Lets kick some ass!"

"No..." Sora said.

"No? But Sora!" Cloud said, getting angry.

"No, I will go alone."

"You? But you can barley move!" Yuffie protested.

"Where are Donald and Goofy?"

"Disney Castle, why? Sora you can't do this, your in no condition to fight. Please let us take care of this." pleaded Yuffie.

"Call them, have them warp here and meet us at the castle." Sora said, carefully pulling himself to his feet.

"This is not time to act the hero Sora," Leon said, glaring at Sora, "If you go out there and get killed, then all hope is lost. Do you realize that?"

"I know, but this is my battle. They took Riku from me," Sora looked down as tears came to his eyes, "And then they turned him against me. I won't stop until I rescue Riku, I won't give into death."

Leon sighed and leaned against the wall, "So that blindfolded boy was Riku, from what Donald and Goofy told us about him, I assumed he was, but I didn't think that the Organization would be as bold as to turn him into their minion."

"But Sora, how do you know that he is Riku? It was just a dream," Kairi said quietly.

"It was to real to be a dream, Roxas is messing with me I know it. Besides I know in my heart that it's true, just like my other dream. For whatever reason, Roxas is trying to get to me, and he's using Riku to do it. I won't let him mess with MY Riku anymore, I won't let him get my heart."

Sora slowly started walking towards the door, obviously in pain. As he reached the door, he felt someone slip his arm around their neck and sustain some of his weight. Looking down he saw Kairi's red head.

"Kairi?"

"Your never going to make it to that castle in time if you walk that slow."

"But, its--"

"Too dangerous, right? Well I don't care anymore, you need help and I'm gong to help you."

Sora smiled at his sister, "We'll go together."

Kairi nodded and shifted Sora's arm so she could take more of his weight, "We'll go together."

* * *

"You wanted to see me lord Xemnas?" 

Xemnas looked up to see Roxas standing in the doorway of his study, "Yes I've read your report on your little visit to the End of the World."

"Oh, and?"

"You have done well Roxas, I was skeptical at first when you asked to test the boy, but you were right. He has completely turned his back on that key brat."

"Well sir, you see, about that, he has mostly surrendered himself to the darkness, but there's still a part of him thats holding back. He stopped me from killing the key bearer, he was hesitant to obey orders to use his dark energy on him. I think that it would be wise to not assign him missions regarding the key bearer for a while."

"Ha, of course you could commend him on for stopping you from ruining the plan. Think Roxas, if you had killed the key bearer at this time, how all of our planning, all of our hard work, would have been for nothing. We have not collected enough hearts yet, the power of Kingdom Hearts is not yet strong enough. You could say that he saved us."

"I believe that this is true, but if you had seen the way he stopped me sir. He didn't just grab me and force me to stop, he got between me and the key bearer, he protected the key bearer. Something must be done sir."

"Hmm...we shall keep him around here for a while. Give him some time to think, but we must be careful that he doesn't allow himself to see the light in his own heart. We must make him feel so betrayed, so angry, that he can't see through the darkness."

"Yes sir, I agree. Don't worry, I will talk to him," Roxas started to walk out of the study, but turned and smiled at Xemnas, "I have a plan."

* * *

Riku was standing at the window deep in thought when he heard someone knock on the door. 

"Its open," he called annoyed at being interrupted.

"Well well, if it isn't my favorite person."

Riku turned to see Roxas standing in the doorway, smirking. Riku gave him a cold look, and turned back to the window.

"What your not happy to see me?" Roxas asked walking toward him, with a mock pout, "I'm hurt Riku, I take you to see your beloved Sora, and now you won't even talk to me."

Roxas wrapped his arms around Riku's waist from behind and pulled Riku close to him. "Why so angry Riku? Are you lonely in this big room all by yourself?" He whispered in his ear.

Riku glared at Roxas and pulled away from him, "Don't touch me, just leave me alone."

"Aw, don't be like that Riku, I just wanted to talk, thats all." Roxas said coyly.

"So talk, what do you want to know?" Riku asked, sitting down on the bed.

"We'll I just wanted to know why you saved that heartless back stabber. I mean, he pretty much betrayed your friendship and left you to rot in that dungeon."

Riku looked down, "Don't...don't bring him up."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." Roxas said, sitting close to Riku on the bed and slipping his arm around his waist, "Its just, it's hard for me to watch you battle with your emotions like this. You need to let go Riku, move on, he obviously has."

"But...why? Why was he there at The End of the World?"

"He was probably on some errand for the king, you know how much he loves him. He would do ANYTHING for that stupid mouse."

"But what if he was looking for me? What if he hasn't forgotten about me?"

Roxas tutted and drew Riku closer, "Riku, it pains me to see you living in false hope. Sora has long since forgotten about you my silver haired gem. When he was still living in Twilight Town he never shut up about the king. It was always 'King Mickey this' and 'King Mickey that'. But did he ever talk about you? No, he never mentioned anyone by the name of Riku."

"He...he really has forgotten about me, hasn't he?" Riku said, resting his head in his hands.

"I'm afraid so pet," Roxas said, gently stroking Riku's hair. "But don't despair you still have me and the Organization. We care about you Riku, even if that ungrateful brat doesn't."

Riku looked up at Roxas with tears in his eyes, "You do?"

"Of course we do, me especially," Roxas said, taking Riku's chin in his hand and brought his face towards his, "I find my self quite...drawn to you." Roxas whispered as he leaned into Riku and kissed him.

* * *

**Blabbing:**

Shock! Horror! Shattered images! That Roxas is a tricksy one I must say, seducing Riku like that. Poor Sora, he's so utterly helpless right now. The Space Paranoids are next (most likely), once again thank you to everyone who left a fabulous review! They make all the work worth it, so review like crazy!


	11. Space Paranoids

**Blade of Light: Space Paranoids**

**Date started: 7.16.06**

**Date finished: 7.20.06  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Authors note: **

nya ha, oh boy the plot thickens, not much to say really, thanks for the reviews of chapter 10. I know that most of you probably want to kill Roxas, but I have to ask you to not kill him until the end of the story, I still kinda need him, but you can beat him within an inch of his life if you like . Read and Review if you please. Thanks for reading! oh and eating cereal when you write is the best, mmm crunchy, it makes the best late night snack.

* * *

"We're almost there," Kairi gasped, pulling Sora up yet another set of stairs. Rain lashed at her face as she swept her bangs out of her eyes with her free hand. 

"Kairi, maybe you should rest," Sora said, looking worriedly at his sister, "I can bear to walk a for a little bit."

"Sora you and I both know that if I let you walk on your own it would take forever to get to Hallow Bastion. We don't have that kind of time right now." Kairi shivered as the wind picked up.

As they reached the top of the stairs, Kairi stumbled under Sora's weight.

"Kairi?" Sora asked worriedly, struggling catching her before she fell over.

"It's alright, I just tripped thats all." Kairi said, pulling Sora's arm over her shoulder again.

"Kairi, I'm going to have to insist that you take a break."

"But Sora, we don't have tim--"

"We have time for a small rest," Sora said smiling at his sister, "I'm sure Donald and Goofy will understand."

Kairi didn't say anything, but started to helped Sora over to the battlements. As they reached the battlements, Sora heard a shuffling of feet behind him and turned to see a small group of heartless and nobodies surrounding them.

"Stay behind me," Sora said, pushing Kairi behind him and summoning his keyblade.

"Sora behind you!" Kairi yelled.

Sora turned to see a nobody attacking him from behind, slashing his keyblade down, he killed it. As he started to swing back around, two heartless attacked from behind him. He managed to cut the first one down, but was hit by the second.

An intense burst of pain shot through Sora's body, "Damn," Sora muttered, gritting his teeth against the pain and dropping to one knee, "I could totally waste these guys if I wasn't injured."

The attacks continued as Sora tried desperately to protect Kairi as the heartless and nobodies started closing in on them. Just as Sora thought all hope was lost, he heard a familiar battle cry. Looking up, he saw Donald and Goofy charging into the mass of heartless and nobodies. The battle was over almost instantly, Goofy came over to help Sora to his feet as Donald took care of the left over enemy's.

"Boy am I glad to see you," Sora said gratefully as Goofy pulled him to his feet. Trying to ignore the new pain that shot through his body, he turned and helped his sister up.

"When you didn't show up at the castle, we got worried, so we came to look for ya," Goofy explained, trying to help a teetering Sora balance.

"Yeah, and then Leon showed up and asked if we'd seen you," Donald added, joining the group, "He acted as if you two had run off."

Sora and Kairi exchanged guilty looks, "Well...I think that the phrase 'ran off' is a bit of an exaggeration," Kairi said, looking away, "We just er...took a walk with out permission."

Sora nodded for emphasis, "See before we called you, we had this fight with Squall and Cloud about going to Space Paranoids, we tried to go with them to Hallow Bastion, but they wouldn't let us. So they left Yuffie to make sure that we didn't try and sneak out, but we summoned Stitch and set him lose in the kitchen, and while she was distracted trying to stop him from destroying everything we used the computer terminal to contact you. Then we snuck out the back door, and here we are."

"You two realize that you're going the wrong way, right?" came a sullen voice from behind Donald and Goofy. A angry looking Leon stepped out from the shadows, "If you two had kept going, you would have ended up in the gorge. The heartless are gathering there for some reason, you wouldn't have stood a chance."

"Look we're really sorry Leon," Sora said looking Leon in the eye, "But this is something I have to do, with or with out your help, I'm not letting the Organization get this worlds heart."

Leon sighed and shook his head, "Follow me, we don't have much time."

* * *

Riku awoke to find his ams wrapped around a brown haired boy. 

"Sora?" he mumbled, carefully sitting up so he wouldn't wake the sleeping boy.

But leaning over the boy, he realized that it wasn't Sora at all but Roxas. Panicking slightly, Riku looked down and was relieved to see that he was still wearing his boxers. Riku felt the other boy stir, and was afraid that his sudden movement had awoken him, but the other boy just rolled over and remained asleep.

"He looks so much like Sora when he's sleeping," Riku thought, watching the boy's chest rise and fall as he slept peacefully.

Realizing who he was thinking about, Riku shook his head trying to clear his thoughts, "No," Riku thought, "He doesn't belong in my thoughts anymore, he is dead to me, and I to him."

Untangling himself from Roxas, he quietly got out of bed and started searching around the room for his clothes. After a few minutes of searching, he had only found a pair of jeans, which he gratefully pulled on. Shivering slightly, he wished that he hadn't gotten out of the nice warm bed, but something about snuggling up to Roxas felt wrong to him.

Sighing, Riku walked over to his favorite spot in front of the large picture windows that took up the far wall of his room.

"It's always dark out side," Riku thought, staring out over the gloomy wet city, "Even during the day time, the clouds block out the sun. There is no light in this world, only darkness."

Buried deep in thought Riku didn't hear Roxas coming up behind him. In fact, he didn't realize that Roxas was even up until he felt him snake his arms around Riku's waist.

"Riku, love, why are you up so early?" Roxas purred, drawing himself closer to Riku, "I didn't kick you out of bed, did I?"

Grateful for the warmth coming from Roxas, Riku smiled, "No, I just couldn't sleep. Besides," he said turning around to face Roxas, "I didn't want to wake you up."

"Well then you shouldn't have let your side of the bed get cold," Roxas whined, imitating the pout that Sora always put on when he didn't get his way.

Seeing the infamous Sora pout, Riku turned away from Roxas with a pained look.

"Don't do that," Riku said, trying to push away from Roxas, "It creeps me out."

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I upset you?" Roxas asked, hanging on to Riku's waist.

"It's just...I don't want to be reminded of him anymore," Riku said, giving up trying to struggle out of Roxas's grasp.

"Then let me take your mind off of him," Roxas whispered in Riku's ear.

Spinning Riku around to face him, Roxas pulled Riku into a deep kiss. Running his hand through Roxas's hair, Riku pulled the younger boy on top of him as he fell over on the bed. Finally running out of air, the two boys broke apart. Panting, Roxas pushed himself into a sitting position on top of Riku.

"Your computer is blinking," Roxas said, noticing that the new message button on Riku's computer terminal was flashing.

"So? It can wait," Riku mumbled, pulling Roxas back down for another round of kissing.

As Roxas and Riku started to make out again, Riku's door flew open and Zexion came marching into the room. The two boys broke apart and Riku pushed himself up on one arm to see who had interrupted them.

"Well, well, I hope I didn't interrupt anything." Zexion sneered, crossing his arms.

"Don't worry, you did," Riku said, glaring at Zexion.

"What do you want Zexion?" Roxas asked furiously, still sitting on top of Riku.

"Well, I was sent here to see why you haven't joined the Superior for breakfast yet." Zexion said in a bored drawl, "I guess you were to, erm, busy to check your messages?"

Zexion smirked as both boys gave him a cold glare, "At any rate, he expects both of you in the great hall in about oh, five minutes."

Turning to, walk out the door, Zexion called, "Oh, and you might want to put on something besides your boxers."

Blushing Roxas got up off Riku and started searching for his clothes. Finally finding all his clothing, Roxas began getting dressed. Sighing reluctantly Riku joined him and soon both boy's were dressed and heading towards the great hall.

* * *

Sora, Kairi, Donald and Goof followed Leon into the computer room deep in the heart of Hallow Bastion, leaving a wet trail of water behind them. Tifa, Cloud and Cid were all standing in front of a large computer console . A very wet and unhappy Yuffie was leaning against the far wall. 

"Is the transfer program ready?" Leon asked, joining Tifa, Cloud and Cid in front of the computer.

"Just about," Cid answered typing furiously.

"Transfer program?" Sora asked skeptically, still using Kairi to keep himself up.

"How else do you think you're going to get to Space Paranoids? Thats why you're here right?"

"Yeah...but I thought it was inside the computer. I thought that it would be like a video game, you know?"

Cid threw back his head and laughed, "Well, squirt, this is going to be better than any game you've ever seen. Ok, we're all set, you three," Cid pointed at Sora, Donald and Goofy, "Go stand in front of the scanner."

Donald, Goofy, and Sora, being helped by Kairi, went to stand on a glowing platform off to the side of the computer.

"Ok, so here's the deal," Leon said, facing the group, "Once you enter the Space Paranoids, we are going to be unable to control anything that happens to you, although we will remain in contact. So, don't make any brash actions Sora."

"What?" Sora whined, "I didn't do anything."

Leon glared at Sora and continued talking, "When you get transfered into the computer, you will feel as though everything that happens to you is real, but the truth is that its not. In that world you are a stream of data, no physical harm can come to you. You must remember this when you are faced by an enemy, we have no idea what's waiting for you in there. Any questions?"

Kairi raised her hand, "Um, Leon? How is Sora supposed to fight if he can't even stand up on his own?"

"Not my problem, he's the one who's insisting on going," Leon said, turning away from the group.

"Don't worry Kairi, I'll be fine," Sora said, giving his sister a wide grin and stepping away to prove that he could stand by himself.

"Oh really?" Kairi, asked giving Sora a small smirk and giving him a little push.

Caught off balance, Sora fell backwards and was caught by Goofy. Struggling to get back up, Sora smiled sheepishly up at Kairi.

"Kairi, you ca..."

"Can't come with you right? I know, I wasn't planning to," Kairi said, helping Sora to his feet, and giving him a kiss on the cheek, "Be careful big brother."

"Ok, kiddies, its time to save the world." Cid called from the computer terminal.

"Remember Sora, no rash actions." Leon called as Cid started to digitize Sora and the others. But before Sora could say anything, he was being sucked into the data stream.

When Sora was finally able to see again, he found himself standing in a room that had flashing blue stripes running all around the room. Looking down at himself, he realized that his clothes had changed to emulate the walls of the room. His clothes had become more fitted on his body, and now sported accents of blue light and grey fabric.

"Woah, cool!" Sora said when he saw that his keyblade had also changed. Looking around, he noticed that Donald and Goofy hadn't shown up yet.

"Donald? Goofy?" Sora called, wandering around the room.

"Hello?" A voice called from one of the corners of the room.

"Who's there?" Sora called, holding his keyblade, ready to attack.

"Me," A man wearing a grey body suit with blue light accents walked out of the shadows.

"Who are you?" Sora asked, still weary of the strange man in his suit.

"I am me," The strange man said, "I am Tron."

"Tron?"

"Yes, I am the security program known as Tron. Who are you?"

"I'm Sora," Sora said holding out his hand, "Nice to meet you Tron."

"I am not familiar with that gesture," Tron said eying Sora's out stretched hand with a confused look.

"Its a hand shake, people do it when they meet someone new."

"A...hand shake?"

"Uh-huh," Sora said dropping his hand back down to his side, "You know what, don't worry about that right now, have you seen my friends, Donald and Goofy?"

"Friends? Donald? Goofy? What kind of program's are they?" Tron asked, still looking confused.

"They aren't programs, Donald is a duck, and Goofy...well, Goofy's a dog I guess. They're my friends, you do know what friends are, right?"

"I have not seen anyone who is called Donald, Goofy or Friends."

Sora sighed exasperatedly, "Uh, never mind, can you show me how to get out of here? This is Space Paranoids right?"

"That is correct, although I cannot show you the way out."

"Why not?"

"Because we are the prisoners of the MCP, we are in Pit Cell. The only way to get out of here is to have the access codes."

"Well...do you have the access codes?" Sora asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid I don't, I have been stripped of all data concerning the system. I am no more than a hollow data stream."

"Then do you have a way to contact the computer terminal in Hollow Bastion? Will you help me?"

"Hollow Bastion?"

Tron stood deep in thought for a few minutes and then his face lit up with excitement.

"Yes, Hollow Bastion. It is my user's world."

"Your user?"

"Yes, the user of this computer, Ansem."

"Ansem!"

"Yes, do you know him? He was my user for so many years, but then something happened and he became my enemy. He turned back on the MCP, and soon after that I became imprisoned in this cell."

"That must have been year's ago," Sora said, lost in thought, "Well, you don't have to worry about Ansem anymore, he's gone. I killed him."

"That is a shame, why did you kill him?"

Sora looked a little taken aback by Tron's question, "I...uh...I don't know..."

"You don't know why you killed him? What kind of program are you? Are you a virus?"

"No no, I'm not a program, I'm a human being, a user I guess. As for why I killed him...I killed because, he took things that were very precious to me. He also threatened the existence of these things, so I guess the reason I killed him was to protect what was precious to me."

"To...protect?"

"Yes, you see, in the user world, user's have things called families and friends. Your family are people who you are related to, you share most of your life with them. You usually live with them, and they are always there for you. Your friends are like your family but you aren't directly related to them, but you still share they same bond. Families and friends, they always are there for each other, they protect each other, no matter what."

"You...protect each other."

"Yes, and in sharing these deep bonds, my family and friends become precious to me, do you see? Ansem, he kidnapped my sister, and then he...he took away my best friend. Then he tried to destroy the universe, which put my sister and my best friend in danger. So, I killed him to protect them."

"I understand, is that why you're here? To protect?"

"No..." Sora looked at the ground, trying to hold back tears.

"Your emotion, it does not compute, why is this?"

"Because, I'm a lousy friend. I couldn't protect what was precious to me, thats why I'm here. I'm here to stop the Organization from destroying this world and the user world, but I'm also here because the Organization kidnapped my best friend, Riku, and now they've turned him against me. I'm here to try and save him."

"And to save him you need to know how to contact the user's in Hollow Bastion?"

"Yes, to start."

"Then I will help Sora," Tron said proudly, "Does this mean that Tron and Sora are friends? Tron is watching Sora's back by helping him, yes?"

"Yup," Sora said cheerfully.

Tron's face lit up with a smile, "I have never had a friend before. Come, I will show you the terminal, you can contact your user friends through that."

Tron led Sora over to a small blue computer that blended in with the wall. Looking around the cell, Sora realized how small it really was. He couldn't imagine how Tron had been able to stay in here for all those years.

"Hm." Tron made an unsatisfied noise, "It seems as though my access code has been denied."

"Does that mean that I can't contact my friends?" Sora asked worriedly.

"No, I can hack into the system, but you won't have long. I'm 99.99 sure that Sark will notice the hack within a matter of minutes. Something strange is going on here, I was able to log into the system this morning."

"Its the Organization, I'm sure they have something to do with it."

"Yes, you must tell me more about this Organization later, but now you must talk to your friends, just talk strait into the terminal."

Tron stepped aside to allow Sora full use of the terminal, stepping up to the terminal, Sora began to speak.

"Leon? Leon, are you there?"

"Sora, boy am I glad to hear from you. Your tracking beacon disappeared when you were digitized. We weren't sure what happened."

"Leon, listen, do you know where Donald and Goofy are?"

"No, they disappeared too. Look, I'm going to bring you back, we'll analyze the computer and find out what's going on."

"Ok, lets do it, I don't want to get stuck in here with some crazed Organization member."

"Ok, just hold on for a minute while I prep the program."

Sora stood in front of the computer screen patiently, waiting for Leon to begin the transfer program.

"What! This can't be!"

"What's happening?" Sora shouted, starting to panic.

"We've been locked out of the computer, we can't control anything. They'v--letely--rewro--th--sys--."

"Leon!" Sora yelled at the terminal, "Leon answer me!"

"It's no use," came a new voice from out side the cell.

"Sark," Tron muttered angrily.

"Well well, who's your little friend Tron?"

"My name is Sora, and I demand that you let me out of here at once."

"Oh we'll let you out, when its time for the games." Laughing, Sark walked away from the cell.

"The games?" Sora asked, curiously.

"Yes, everyone who is a 'guest' of the MCP is forced to play them, unless they willingly join the MCP."

"That can't be to bad, I'm good at games."

"Yes, but the stakes of these games are high. You either win, and live to play another round, or you lose."

"What happens when you lose?"

"You are erased, your data is no more."

"So, in other words you die?"

"Yes, that is the only way to escape this place once you have been entered into the games."

* * *

"Well, well, well, its about time," Xemnas said, amused as Riku walked into the great hall. 

"My apologies Lord Xemnas sir," Riku said, trying to straiten his black coat, "I, uh, overslept."

"Well your not too late, please sit down." Xemnas said, with a smirk on his face, "Have you seen Roxas by any chance? He was supposed to join us."

"He said that he would meet with you later," Riku said, sitting down and helping himself to the piles of food that crowded the table. Riku looked up to see Xemnas smiling, "What?"

"Oh, nothing, you just seem...oh how should I put this...happier this morning. Do you care to explain?"

"I...I guess I just got rid of some unwanted weight." Riku said, smiling.

* * *

**Blabbing:**

aw, poor Sora, being called "unwanted weight", damn you Roxas, you whore! Sorry for the shortness, but I wanted to post this up before I went out of town since I won't be able to bring my laptop with me. Up next is the games, it shall be a long chapter for sure. Thank you to the people who consistantly leave comments, and the people who just plain comment, it means a lot. Thanks for reading!


	12. Byte Bashing

**Blade of Light: Byte Bashing**

**Date started: 7.25.06**

**Date finished: 8.8.06**

**Disclaimer: I own nooothing **

**Authors note:**

Ah I'm sorry for not getting this up sooner, but I got sick and slept for like three day's straight and then I was off on vacation again so I couldn't bring my computer. I apologize for the near suckyness of the last chapter, it was quite boring and useless, so I tried to make this as long as I could, it is quite dramatic. Thanks to everyone who left me awesome reviews for the last two chapter's, you guys rock. Please enjoy! Oh, and see the end blabbing to see the songs that work out with the ending. I thought about making it happy, but then I was like, naww!

* * *

Roxas walked into Xemnas's study and bowed. 

"I apologize for my absence this morning Lord Xemnas."

Xemnas looked up from his work to look at the brown haired boy.

"I assume you plan worked?" he asked looking back down at the crystal that sat in front of him.

"Perfectly, I have that idiot eating out of my hand, he'll do anything for us now." Roxas walked over and peered into the crystal, "What 'cha looking at?"

"The next phase of our plan," Xemnas said with a smirk, "Its going exactly as planned. Once we hacked into the security system and the MPC it was pathetically easy to take over the system completely."

"Have we hacked into the core yet?"

"No, not yet, we still cant figure out what the password to the DTD is. Vexen is working right now to hack into the core."

"Damn that Ansem, I figured that he left some sort of firewall. Your his nobody Xemnas, shouldn't you share his memories?" Roxas asked, pacing the study.

"You would assume so, wouldn't you? You know that research into our being isn't my field, it's Vexen's," Xemnas said, watching Roxas, "At any rate, I have no idea what this 'DTD' thing is Vexen keeps going on about."

"Should we pay a visit to the key bearer? Maybe he knows something about the DTD. Of course, I doubt he's smart enough to put two and two together, but I'm sure that one of his cohorts knows something about it."

"Tsk tsk, Roxas, your just trying to start another fight now. But yes, we will pay the key bearer a visit, will you be going personally again?"

"No, I think we'll send our eager silver haired minion first, the key bearer won't be able to resist a request from his 'beloved Riku' and then I think we'll mess with him a little bit."

"And how does that fit into the plan to take the key bearer's heart?"

"Well...uh...it doesn't really, except to prevent him from stopping us from destroying the world known as Space Paranoids."

"Oh? how is that?"

"By messing with him we leave him in a weakened mental state, which means that every step of the way, he will be questioning himself." Roxas smirked and banged his fist on the table, "Do you know what that means? It means that when he's faced with the decision to save Space Paranoids or save his beloved Riku, he'll hesitate, giving us the chance to get away with both."

"And you're sure that he will take it that hard? He might be stronger then you think."

"Oh, I'm sure, once he sees that Riku has completely forgotten about him, he won't be able to even remember his own name." Roxas turned to the door and yelled, "Demyx!"

A blond haired member poked his head into the room, "You called?"

"Tell Vexen to construct a transfer program and tell Riku to come to the study immediately."

"A transfer program?"

"Yes, we're going to pay a little visit to the world known as Space Paranoids."

"Yes sir, I will inform Vexen immediately."

Demyx left the study in a hurry and headed down the hall towards Riku's room.

Knocking on the door, he called, "Riku! Your boyfriend wants to see you!"

The door flew open to reveal a very angry looking Riku, "Damnit Demyx, what do you want?"

"Your boyf...I mean Roxas wants to see you in Lord Xemnas's study."

"Fine, is there anything else? Like why he wants to see me?"

"Something about a transfer program and Space Paranoids, thats all I know," Demyx shifted uncomfortably, "I have to go talk to Vexen, they request that you go immediately."

"Right, you're dismissed, go find Vexen." Riku said, disappearing behind the door again.

Riku walked across the room to a small table that sat between two armed chair's that faced the windows, on it sat a black blindfold. Picking it up, he pocketed the blindfold and walked out the door toward the study.

* * *

Sora felt someone poke his shoulder, "Sora," someone shook him, "Sora wake up." 

Sora sat slumped over sleeping, his back against the wall.

"Just five more minutes Kairi," he mumbled, "I swear."

"Kairi? I do not know who this Kairi is."

Sora opened his eyes slowly and found himself sitting in a small cramped cell.

"Where am I?" he asked, momentarily confused.

"You are in the pit cell," Tron answered giving Sora a confused look, "Don't you remember? Did your memory crash?"

"No, I'm just disoriented thats all," Sora rubbed his eyes and stretched, "How long was I asleep for?"

"Nine hours and twenty three minutes exactly."

Sora stood up and paced around the cell, "When do the games start?" he asked, examining the door.

"When ever the MCP decides to hold them. If you're trying to escape, its hopeless, the only people who can open it are system administrators."

"Like that Sark guy you were telling me about?"

"Exactly, I used to have the power of a system administrator but I was stripped of my power's when I was thrown in here."

"Is there any way to get your power's back?"

"Well, while you were sleeping, I hacked into the mainframe and found out that there is a way to over ride the system and get back my powers, but its dangerous."

"So? I laugh in the face of danger!" Sora said puffing out his chest, "Whats the plan?"

"I found a hole in the system which would allow me to transfer you to another location in the system, the only problem is that I couldn't control where you were transferred to."

"Ok, so you transfer me out of here and then what?"

"Even though you would be out of the pit cell, you still wouldn't be able to transfer out of the computer. They have the whole system locked down, but if I can get my administrative power back, I can access the password's to the system and help the user's gain back control of the computer. So, once you're out of here, you must find a power core and activate it, then return here immediately."

"So I have to activate a power core, and then come back here? Will activating the power core give you back your power?"

"No, activating the power core should allow you to cross back over to the user world, but because of MCP has control over the system you won't be able to stay there permanently since we are sending you there as a piece of data."

"Wait, you mean like a hologram?"

"Precisely, its the best I can do at the moment. When you get to the user world, you have to find the password to the DTD."

"DTD? Whats that?"

"The Door to Darkness, its the door to this world and all the research that Ansem put into this computer about the heartless, nobodies and the heart. Once we access the DTD we control everything, including the MCP."

"Hmm...The Door to Darkness," Sora muttered, scratching his head, "That sounds vaguely familiar."

Sora was so deep in thought that he didn't realize that Tron had already crossed over to the terminal and started to access the the transfer program. As Tron typed away, Sora paced the perimeter of the cell, mumbling to himself.

"The Door to Darkness, that sounds almost like the door to the heart of all worlds. Ansem called it the door to the darkness when I faced him in Hollow Bastion. But I can't remember what he was going to use to open it..." Sora's face lit up with excitement, "Tron, thats it! I know what the password is!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, when I faced him in Hollow Bastion, he talked about opening the heart of all worlds by using the seven princesses of heart. He called that door the Door to the Darkness, if this Door to Darkness is anything like that one, then I'm almost positive that the password to the DTD is the names of the seven princesses of heart."

"Sora, I think you've done it, you've figured out the password to the DTD! Now all we have to do is get to the I/O tower and enter the password. Then we can shut down the MCP and save Space Paranoids." Tron's excitement suddenly disappeared, "But I forgot, we're stuck in this pit cell. There's no way that only one of us could make it to the I/O tower alone, there's all kinds of heartless and nobodies roaming around."

"Wait, I think I have an idea," Sora said, looking at his keyblade, "Maybe the keyblade can get us out of here."

Lifting up the keyblade, he pointed it at the door. A small, thin, stream of light shot from the top of the keyblade and into the door. After a few seconds, Sora heard a faint 'click' come from inside the door and the door slid open.

"Thats the power of the keyblade!" Sora said triumphantly, making a peace sign with his hand.

"Thats amazing!" Tron exclaimed, "Do all user's have a keyblade?"

"Uh, no, its kinda a special thing," Sora said shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"Ah, well, shall we proceed to the I/O tower then?" Tron asked, walking past Sora, "We don't have much time before the MCP notices we are missing."

* * *

Riku walked into the study and snuck up behind Roxas, snaking his arms around his waist. 

"Boo," he whispered into Roxas's ear, pulling Roxas closer.

"Should I leave you two alone?" came a voice from beyond Riku's line of vision.

Riku looked up to see Xemnas standing over his crystal looking amused. Blushing, Riku reluctantly let go of Roxas and bowed.

"I apologize sir, I didn't see you there."

"No, no its ok, please have a seat." Xemnas gestured to a chair to Riku's right.

Once Riku had settled into the chair, Xemas began talking, "You are well aware of this next phase in out plan so I'll make this brief, you are to go to Space Paranoids and find the key bearer. Once you find him, you are to use any means possible to get the password to the DTD from him."

"But how do we know he has the password?" Riku asked, skeptical of Xemnas's plan.

"Even if he doesn't consciously know it, I'm almost positive that its buried some where in his subconscious." Xemnas said, "And once you dig it up, you are to contact Roxas immediately, understood?"

"Yes, but why do I have to contact Roxas? Can't I just come back here and give you the password?"

"That is none of your concern," Xemas said, frowning, "You are to do as you're told and not ask stupid questions."

"Yes sir," Riku said quietly.

"Good now go find Vexen, hopefully he'll have the transfer program done by now."

Xemnas sat down and started to shift through the papers that littered the table.

Realizing he had been dismissed Riku left the room.

Roxas turned to Xemnas and glared, "You didn't have to be so mean Xemnas."

"Ha, I was just being honest. He is nothing but an empty shell, a nobody, he shouldn't question his orders. Besides Roxas, what was I supposed to tell him?_ I_ don't even know why you're insisting on going to Space Paranoids, I thought the whole reason you wanted Riku to join us was so we could use _him _to get the key bearer, not show him off like some prize."

At this Roxas's face turned red, "Well, thats not what I'm doing is it! I _am_ using him to get to the key bearer!"

"You could have fooled me," Xemnas said, smirking at the look on Roxas's face, "If you were really intent on getting the key bearer's heart, you would have already made you move now wouldn't you?"

"If you remember correctly we already tried to make a move, but that blew up in our faces didn't it? I'm taking a more psychological approach, I'll destroy him mentally and then when he's just a sniveling pile of drivel I'll put him out of his misery and take his heart." Roxas clenched his fist, and started laughing, "And then I'll get my revenge!"

"Thats enough Roxas," Xemnas said, giving Roxas a uneasy look, "You sound completely and utterly insane, if revenge is what you're going to Space Paranoids for, then I'll have to ban you from going."

"But sir, you know that I lost everything because of him years ago. Its taken me years to get back my power, don't try and sto—."

"No, you will go to Space Paranoids to prevent the key bearer from stopping us, but that is the only reason. If you lose it again and attempt to take his heart before our preparations are ready, then I will have no choice but to eliminate you."

"Yes sir, I understand," Roxas said, giving Xemnas an angry glare.

"Good, now get out of my sight, I'll call you when Riku contacts us."

* * *

"Suck on that!" Sora yelled as he cut down the last of the recent swarm of nobodies and heartless. It had taken them ages, but they had finally made it to the hallway outside the I/O tower. Upon arrival they had promptly been ambushed by a horde of nobodies and heartless. 

"You are quite a powerful user," Tron commented impressed at Sora's fighting.

"Heh, not really," Said Sora, blushing, "I've just had a lot of practice thats all."

"Well thats a good thing for me," Tron said, smiling at Sora, "I don't think I would ever have been able to make it to the I/O tower with out you."

"I don't know about that," said a voice from the entrance to the I/O tower, "He could never beat me at anything."

Sora and Tron turned to see a silver haired boy, wearing a blindfold, step out of the shadows.

"Hey Sora, I see you've recovered from our last meeting."

"Ri—Riku?" Sora stammered, not believing his eyes, "Is that really you?"

"Yeah, last time I checked," Riku said, looking annoyed.

Sora's eyes became blurry as tears started streaming down his cheeks, "Riku, I...I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I couldn't save you when you and Kairi got kidnapped. I tried to find you after you disappeared but I had no idea where to start."

"Oh shut up will you?" Riku said glaring at Sora, "Save your sob story for someone who cares. I'm not here for fake apologies, I'm here for the password to the DTD."

"What? Riku I—" Sora said with disbelief, he couldn't believe what Riku was saying.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Riku said, his hand starting to become lost in a swirl of black.

"But why Riku? Why did you turn to their side?"

"You wouldn't understand," Riku said, glaring even more angrily at Sora, "You're not a nobody, you have a heart! You don't know what its like to feel empty inside, to know that something is missing, and no matter how much you try to cover it up with fake emotion, its still there, a great empty hole."

"Riku, what are you talking about? You're not a nobody! You have a heart, I know it."

"Don't waist your time trying to pretend its not true Sora, I've already excepted my fate. Now tell me the password to the DTD, so I can destroy this world and return its heart to Kingdom Hearts."

"No," Sora said with a bitter look in his face, "If you want it you'll have to fight me."

"Don't be foolish Sora," Riku said, smirking, "We all know that you'll never be able to beat me. Make things easier on yourself, tell me the password now and you won't get hurt."

"No!" Sora said, glaring at Riku, "I don't know what they told you, but I never stopped looking for you. And as much as a pains me to have to fight you, I'll never let the Organization win. So, lets go!"

Sora summoned his keyblade and crouched into a fighting stance. Riku gave him a cool smile and summoned up a keyblade that Sora had never seen before. It looked like the Soul Eater sword that Malifacent had given him when he had joined the heartless but it now had a wings sticking out as the blade and serving as the hilt. It also sported the heartless's sign as its key chain.

Sora charged towards Riku, and swung his keyblade down on him. Riku parried the blow with ease and launched a ball of dark energy at Sora. But Sora wasn't there, he had rolled to the side and was already attacking Riku again. Sora's keyblade connected and Riku was thrown backward into the wall.

"You have gotten stronger since we last fought Sora," Riku said, wincing as he got to his feet, "But I've gotten even stronger."

Riku gave Sora a sinister grin as he began glowing with dark energy.

"Tron, go quickly! Get to the I/O Tower! I'll stall him as much as I can." Sora yelled desperately.

"No, Tron will not leave his friend, Tron will fight to protect what is precious to him."

"Oh how touching," Riku said, spiting out a merciless laugh, "Well, if you insist, I'll destroy you both!"

Riku raced towards them at a frightening speed, leaping in the air he brought his keyblade down on Tron. Tron blocked the blow but Riku was faster, he grabbed Tron by the neck and brought his other arm back, where it started to collect dark energy.

"Riku no!" Sora screamed sprinting towards Riku and Tron.

Riku brought his hand forward and hit Tron with the dark energy. Tron was thrown clear across the room and hit the wall with a sickening crack. He slid down the wall and lay at the bottom in a motionless heap.

"NOO!" Sora screamed, running over towards Tron and sinking down on his knees next to him. "Tron please wake up, please."

Trons eyes flickered open, "I'm sorry Sora, I couldn't protect my friend."

"No, you did wonderfully," Sora said, tears streaming down his face, "You helped me more then you could have imagined."

Suddenly Tron became surrounded by a pink light, "Tron is glowing, why is this?"

"Your heart is being released," Sora said, starting to sob even harder, "You're data is being erased."

"Tron is...dying?" Tron asked, as small balls of light began drifting upward from his body and he began to disappear.

"Yes," Sora managed to choke out between sobs, "I'm sorry Tron, this is all my fault, I shouldn't have dragged you into this."

"Sora should not be sorry, Tron was proud to be able to be Sora's friend." Tron said, his body becoming almost transparent, "Tron will always be with Sora, in his heart."

Before Sora could say anything, Tron was gone, the last of the light consumed by the surrounding darkness of the hallway.

"You see Sora? Your foolishness has caused pain and suffering, now are you ready to surrender before I am forced to destroy another one of your little friends?" Riku was standing behind the kneeling Sora.

"No," Sora said, clenching his keyblade, "I'll never tell you."

"Oh I think you will." said a new voice.

Sora looked up to see Roxas standing behind Riku, holding a dagger to Riku's neck.

"Roxas, what are you doing!" Riku whispered, alarmed at the other boys actions.

"Just play along," Roxas whispered back. Roxas turned his attention back to Sora, "Now key bearer, tell me the password to the DTD or I'll kill your beloved Riku."

Sora looked helplessly up at Roxas and Riku, "I...I..." he stammered.

"Please Sora, don't let him kill me." Riku pleaded, desperately.

Sora looked at the ground, he knew that he had been beaten, "It's the seven princesses of heart. Thats the password to the DTD, Aurora, Snow White, Cinderella, Jasmine, Alice, Belle and..."

"Yes? Go on," Roxas said, still holding Riku hostage.

"and Kairi," Sora said begrudgingly.

"Very good," Roxas said, releasing Riku, and walking toward Sora, "You have done well, key bearer, now I have something for you."

Roxas snapped his fingers and an unconscious Donald and Goofy appeared next to Sora.

"Don't worry they're still alive," Roxas said, smirking at the horrified expression on Sora's face, "Although, I doubt you all will be for long."

Laughing Roxas turned to Riku, "Lets go, we have orders from Lord Xemnas to return immediately. We still need to deliver the password to Vexen."

"What the hell was that back there Roxas?" Riku demanded, massaging his neck where the knife had been.

"What? It was effective wasn't it?" Roxas said, wrapping his arms around Riku's neck and pulling the silver haired boy closer, "Besides, you weren't getting any where, so I thought I'd help you."

"I don't need your help."

"Do we have to fight in front of him?" Roxas asked, pointing towards Sora, who was watching them with a pained look on his face, "Oh, you're always so angry with me. Here I'll make it up to you."

Sora felt as though his heart was going to explode as he watched Roxas pull Riku into a deep kiss. He could feel the hot tears pouring down his face, as the two boys disappeared into the dark portal.

* * *

"The mission has been completed sir," Roxas said as he walked into Xemnas's study, a triumphant smirk on his face. 

"I thought I told you to wait until Riku contacted us," Xemnas said angrily.

"I got the password from him didn't I?" Roxas said, plopping down in one of the chairs that were scattered around the table, "Besides, it would have taken forever if we had waited for Riku."

"Yes, well, what's done is done, soon we shall have the heart of the world known as Space Paranoids."

"What about Radiant Garden? Weren't we planning on destroying it too?"

"I think we will leave Radiant Garden alone for now. We should lure the key bearer into a false sense of security there, don't you agree?"

"Yes, of course."

"Good, now go see if Vexen's done destroying Space Paranoids yet, we've extracted all the data that we need."

"Yes sir," Roxas said, getting up and bowing as he left the room.

* * *

Sora sat on the ground, numbly staring off into space. He could barely believe what had happened in the last half hour. As he sat, he felt the ground begin to shake. 

"Oh no," he thought, getting quickly to his feet, "Thats right, now that they have the password they are going to destroy Space Paranoids!"

Stooping down the pick up Donald and Goofy, Sora dragged them into the I/O Tower and searched around quickly until he found a terminal that looked like the one in the pit cell. Carefully putting down Donald and Goofy to one side, he tried desperately to open the transfer program. But every time he tried, access denied paraded around the screen.

"Damnit!" Sora screamed, banging on the keyboard angrily.

"You'll never get it to open that way," said a familiar voice.

Sora turned to see a transparent version of Tron standing behind him.

"Tron? You're...alive?"

"I'm afraid not, I'm nothing but left over data of the program once known as Tron. But I have enough data left to hack into the system so you can escape."

"But what about you? I can't leave you, not again, your my friend." Sora said, a pained look on his face.

"I'm not Tron Sora, I'm left over data, I am no longer alive. Once I enter this terminal to help you escape, I will be destroyed."

"No..." Sora sobbed, as the transparent Tron stepped towards the terminal.

"You must let me do this Sora, I must protect my friends from being destroyed. Now please stand in front of the terminal with those two, the transfer program should begin in a few seconds." Tron began to enter the terminal but turned back to Sora, "You must tell the users to turn off Ansems computer once you are safely out, it is the only way to stop the destruction of the user's world. You must destroy it, do you understand?"

Sora was crying to hard to answer but nodded his head as he stood in front of the terminal with Donald and Goofy.

"Do not cry Sora, I won't be gone forever. I will always be in your heart."

With that the transparent Tron disappeared into the terminal and Sora saw the transfer program open through his blurred eyes. Then he felt himself being sucked into the data stream, and within a few seconds felt his feet touch the hard ground of the transfer platform in the computer room. Letting go of Donald and Goofy, Sora sank to his knees and broke down. He felt someone come over and put their hand on his shoulder, but he couldn't see who it was through his tear blurred eyes.

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. Someone was trying to pull him away from the platform, they were trying to talk to him, but he couldn't here what they were saying. He struggled to get free, and made his way over to computer terminal that sat on the far wall. He could hear the yells of protest as he brought his keyblade above his head and brought it crashing down on the terminal. Once he had destroyed the terminal, he walked over to the wall where the controls for the main computer were, and found the self destruct button. Hitting it he watched the the red numbers counting down from ten, lifting up his keyblade once again he started to destroy the control panel but was grabbed by someone and dragged out of the room.

All of a sudden the sound came back as the huge blast rocked the hallway he had been dragged into. Who ever had been dragging him turned him so he was face to face with him.

"What the hell were you thinking?" They yelled, as the dust from the explosion settled all around them.

But Sora didn't have an opportunity to answer him, as he slipped into an exhausted sleep.

* * *

**Blabbing:**

Sooo saadd, poor Sora. I nearly started crying when Tron died a second time, the last part of this goes really well with the song Brothers on a Hotel Bed by Death Cab for Cutie (no I am NOT an emo person), not that the lyrics have anything to do with it, but the tone of the song compliments it quite nicely i must say. Either that or Say Goodbye from the .hack/sign soundtrack or Akatsuki no kuruma by fictionjunction YUKKA. So I hoped you enjoyed it, please leave some reviews!

* * *


	13. Darkness of the Unknown

**Blade of Light: Darkness of the Unknown**

**Date started: 8/10/06**

**Date finished: 8/12/06**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Author's note:**

Ah things are starting to get interesting now, although this chapter is a tad less interesting as the last. Sora acts like quite the little emo boy in this chapter. This chapter is filled with much angst, I hope you enjoy it. Thank you to everyone who left me a review, they were lovely. I know most of you probably hate Roxas at this point, but don't be to harsh on him, he's just an angry little emo kid with no heart. So, read, review and enjoy!

* * *

"_...You don't know what its like to feel empty inside, to know that something is missing, and no matter how much you try to cover it up with fake emotion, its still there, a great empty hole...I've already excepted my fate..."_

"_You're data is being erased..."_

"_Tron is...dying?"_

"_You see Sora? Your foolishness has caused pain and suffering..."_

"_Sora should not be sorry, Tron was proud to be able to be Sora's friend... I won't be gone forever. I will always be in your heart."_

"Sora," someone poked him, "Sora wake up."

Sora opened his eyes reluctantly, and waited while the room came slowly into focus. He was surprised to find Yuffie perched at the end of his bed.

"Yuffie?"

"Kairi's sleeping right now, I promised her I would keep an eye on you."

"Did you have to wake me up for it?" Sora asked, annoyed.

"Leon wants to have a word with you, he's waiting in the hall."

"I don't want to talk," Sora said, a dark look flickering across his face, "Just leave me alone."

Sora turned away from Yuffie and drew the covers over his head. He heard Yuffie sigh and walk over to the door.

"He wont talk Squall," He heard Yuffie say as she opened the door.

Leon sighed and, massaged his forehead, "What do we do now?"

"Hell if I know," Yuffie said, "Aerith was always better at this kind of stuff then anyone else."

"Mmm..." Leon replied, turning to walk away, "We'll let him rest a little longer, but he's going to have to face reality sometime."

"_But why Riku? Why did you turn to their side?"_

"_Please Sora, don't let him kill me."_

"_You have a heart, I know it."_

Sora opened his eyes to find early morning sun light streaming into the room. Sitting up he noticed Leon leaning against the wall opposite the bed.

"What do you want?" Sora asked, giving Leon a cold look.

"To talk, you still haven't given us a reason for your behavior when you returned from Space Paranoids."

"I thought I told you I didn't want to talk about it." Said Sora, standing up and crossing to the door. Sora tried to open the door, but found that it had been locked. "What the...? Let me out Leon!"

"Not until you tell me what happened in Space Paranoids," Leon said, still leaning calmly against the wall. "And why you destroyed all of our equipment."

Sora grabbed Leon by the front of his shirt and screamed, "You want to know what happened! I'll tell you what happened, the Organization won, thats what happened! They lied to Riku, turned him against me, then sent him and Roxas to rub it in my face! Oh, but thats not all, they couldn't just break my heart, they had to go and kill...and kill..." Sora released his grasp on the front of Leon's shirt and sank to his knees, sobbing. "I didn't want to destroy the computer, but it was the only way to stop the Organization from destroying Radiant Garden through Space Paranoids. It was his last wish, he told me it was the only way to save the user world. I couldn't let the Organization win again."

Leon stood uncomfortably against the wall, not sure what to say to the sobbing Sora.

"I...uh...who told you to destroy the computer?"

"He did, my friend...Tron...he just...he just wanted to protect his friends. Its all my fault...everything is my fault." Sora said, a deranged look on his face, "Riku, Tron, Kairi, its all my fault. Riku was right, I can't beat him. I can't beat him or the Organization, I can't even protect my friends. I just cause everyone pain and suffering. I might as well just go give them my heart, at least no one would have to suffer anymore."

Sora stood up and summoned his keyblade. Swinging it above his head he brought it crashing down upon the door. As his keyblade made contact, the door broke into pieces, and then broke free of the door frame.

"Where do you think you're going?" Leon asked angrily, grabbing Sora's arm, "I know you're upset, but you can't just go running off like this."

"Let go of me Leon," Sora growled angrily, turning and giving Leon a piercing look.

"Answer me, where are you going? To give the Organization your heart? I thought you were stronger then tha—!" Leon was cut off as he was hit by the keyblade. Flying across the room, he landed with a thud against the wall.

"Don't try and stop me Squall," Sora said, crossing the room and looking down on Leon. "I'm tired of being trampled on, I'm tired of being beaten down. I just want to end this," Sora walked back towards the broken door and turned back to Leon, "Take care of Kairi for me."

Sora stepped through the broken door and walked down the hallway. Stopping at Kairi's door, he sighed and knocked. When there was no answer, he opened the door to find Kairi still asleep.

"Goodbye Kairi," he said, leaning over to kiss his sister on the forehead, "I'm sorry for everything I put you through."

Straightening up, he left his sisters room and continued down the stairs into the kitchen, which became suddenly quiet at his appearance.

"Leon's upstairs," Sora said emotionlessly, "He may need medical attention."

No one said anything as he walked out of the kitchen and ripped open the front door. Pushing back his chair, Cloud got to his feet and followed Sora outside.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He asked, glaring.

"Leaving," Sora said, his back to Cloud, "I'm tired of fighting, I just want to disappear."

"Sounds like you're running away to me."

"So what if I am? Its still better then this."

"I didn't think you where the type to run away when things got tough, but I guess I was wrong." Cloud said, turning to go back into the house. "Have a nice life Sora, I hope its what you wanted."

Cloud walked back into the house and slammed the door, leaving Sora standing alone in the street.

"What the hell do you know?" Sora muttered, as he walked towards the Gummi ship hanger.

* * *

"_I don't know what they told you, but I never stopped looking for you."_

Riku awoke suddenly, trying to remember what he had been dreaming about. Untangling himself from a sleeping Roxas, Riku got up and crossed the room to the two chairs that faced the large picture windows. Sitting down, he noticed his black blindfold sitting on the table next to the chair silently mocking him. Picking it up, he tied it around his head, coving his eyes.

"Darkness," he thought, "I see nothing but darkness when I wear this."

Sighing, he pulled the blindfold off and dropped it back on the table.

"Why can't I stop thinking of him?" he wondered silently, resting his head in his hands, "He betrayed me, lied to me and then fought me like an enemy. So why do I still love him?"

"_Now key bearer, tell me the password to the DTD or I'll kill your beloved Riku."_

_Sora looked at the ground, he knew that he had been beaten, "It's the seven princesses of heart. Thats the password to the DTD, Aurora, Snow White, Cinderella, Jasmine, Alice, Belle and..." _

"_Yes? Go on," Roxas said, still holding Riku hostage._

"_and Kairi," Sora said begrudgingly._

"Why did he save me? I hurt him over, and over again. I killed his friend, and he still wouldn't let Roxas kill me. Is Roxas lying to me? Or is Sora?"

Riku heard Roxas rustling the sheets behind him.

"Riku? Come back, you're side is getting cold." Heard Roxas mumble.

Sighing Riku stood up and walked back to the bed, where he saw a very disgruntled Roxas looking up at him.

"I'm sorry," he said, climbing back in and allowing Roxas to snuggle up to him, "I didn't mean to wake you."

"Why were you sitting all the way over by the window?" Roxas asked, wrapping his arms around Riku's chest, "You're cold, how long have you been sitting there?"

"I dunno," Riku replied, resting his chin on the smaller boys bed tousled head, "I was just thinking."

"You think to much," Roxas said, yawning and snuggling closer to Riku.

"Hm, maybe," Riku said, "Hey Roxas?"

"mm?" Roxas replied, half asleep.

"You said all nobodies are the left overs of someone who lost their heart, right?"

"Mmhmm."

"Then who am I from? Who's nobody am I?"

Roxas didn't answer, and when Riku looked down at the younger boy, he noticed that he had fallen asleep.

"Hm, I'll ask him tomorrow," Riku thought, as he snuggled deeper into the covers and started to drift into a deep sleep.

As soon as Riku had finally fallen asleep, the door to his room burst open and Saïx walked into the room.

Roxas and Riku both sat up quickly, each looking equally disoriented.

"Wassamatter?" Roxas mumbled, squinting eyes against the light that came from the hallway.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Saïx said, smirking.

"What do you think ass hole?" Riku grumbled, glaring at Saïx.

"What do you want Saïx?" Roxas asked, his wits finally seeming to return to him.

"Well, I came to inform you that while you two were having a nice lie in, that the prisoner escaped."

"Prisoner? What prisoner?" Riku asked, still disoriented from being woken up so suddenly.

"The traitor, number VIII. Axel."

* * *

"Whats up Cloud?" Tifa asked worriedly, as Cloud stalked into the kitchen. 

"Stupid idiot," Cloud replied sinking back into his chair, "He's running away."

"Whaaa?" Yuffie said, giving Cloud a confused look, "Did you stop him?"

"No, do I look like a baby sitter to you?"

"Cloud!" Tifa yelled, hitting him over the head with the pan she had been washing, "You're just going to let him run away and get killed!"

"If thats what he wants then let him, what am I his father?" Said Cloud, massaging his head where Tifa had hit him.

"No, but you're still responsible for what happens to him, as is everyone else in this house. Do you even know why he's decided to run away?"

"All he said is that he was tired of fighting, but don't worry I'm sure he'll come to his senses eventually and come back."

"Don't be so sure," Leon moaned, as he made his way tenderly down the stairs.

"What happened to you Squall, you look awful." Yuffie said, rushing over to help Leon into a chair.

"The kid jumped me," Leon said, "and its Leon, Yuffie."

"He jumped you?" Tifa asked, putting down the pot that she had been brandishing at Cloud earlier. "Why would he do a thing like that?"

"I...uh...I'm afraid I may have upset him. I'm no good at talking to people, you know that."

"You must have really upset him for him to jump you like that," Tifa said, leaning against the counter, "Why was he upset Leon? Did you find out what happened in Space Paranoids?"

"Thats what upset him," Leon said, "Apparently the Organization sent Riku to destroy Space Paranoids and he ended up running into Sora and killing one of his friends, Tron or something. Then it seems like Roxas showed up and somehow broke Sora's heart. Thats all I could get out of him before he decided that everything was his fault and decided to run off."

"Tron?" Cid asked, scratching his chin, "You mean that washed up security program?"

"I guess, he wouldn't say much other then that he had been killed by the Organization. And that he told Sora to destroy the computer, it seems as though you're washed up security program saved us for the time being."

"And whats all this about Roxas breaking Sora's heart?" Cid asked confused, "I thought Riku was the one he liked?"

"You got me," said Leon, rubbing his head.

"You two are so thick," Yuffie said, giving both of them a reproachful look, "Isn't it obvious that Roxas has somehow convinced Riku that Sora didn't love him anymore, and then seduced him?"

"Come again?" Leon asked, giving Yuffie a confused look.

"Here let me spell it out in terms you'll both understand," Yuffie said, looking annoyed, "Roxas and Riku are now a couple, and Sora, who loves Riku, is now heart broken because Riku seems to love someone else. Do you understand?"

"Ok, so how does this tie in with Sora running off?" Cid asked, still looking slightly confused.

"I don't know, Leon was the one who talked to him."

"He thinks that everything that has happened is his fault," Leon said, "So now I guess he's going to go and give his heart to the Organization."

"What!" Yelled a chorus of voices.

"What's going on down here?"

Everyone turned to see Kairi standing on the stair case, still looking half asleep.

"Why is everyone yelling at this time in the morning?" She asked, walking over to the table and collapsing sleepily into a chair.

"Your idiot brother's run off," Cloud said, glaring at Kairi.

"What!" Kairi said, her head snapping up from its resting spot on the table, "Did you try and stop him!"

"Well, Leon did, but Cloud just let him go," Yuffie said, giving Cloud an angry look.

"Cloud! How could you just let him run off? Did he say where he was going?"

"To give his heart to the Organization," Leon said sheepishly, "But I doubt he'll make it, we don't even know how to get to The World that Never Was."

"Well we've got to go find him!" Kairi said, standing up from the table. "We have to stop him before he does something stupid!"

"I'd say its a bit late for that little Missy," Cid said, "But I'm with you, we should find him ASAP."

Leon stood up, wincing from the pain in his side, "I'll go and visit the King, I'm sure he'll know what to do." Leon walked over to Cloud and grabbed him by the back of his shirt, "and you're coming with me."

* * *

Sora sat with his knees pulled up to his chest, resting his chin on his knees. He was sitting inside the cockpit of his Gummi ship, staring out at the endless mass of space. 

"Oh man," he said, closing his eyes, "I'm so lost...and almost out of gas." Sora's stomach grumbled at this and he opened his eyes, "And out of food too. There's gotta be a world around here somewhere."

Sora sat up in his seat and started typing coordinates into the computer.

"Lets see, there should be a world about a mile west from here. I think I have just enough gas to make it."

Sora turned on the engine and flew west towards the mystery world. As he approached it, he saw that it looked like a skull and crossbones.

"Uh oh, that means...pirates!"

As Sora approached the world, an alarm sounded in the cockpit.

"Oh no! I'm out of gas," Sora said, trying franticly to keep the Gummi ship in the air as it was pulled down by the gravitational pull of the world. As the engine went dead, Sora lost control and the Gummi ship came crashing down towards the strange new world.

"Oi!"

Sora felt someone prod him, opening his eyes he saw a strangely dressed man standing in front of him. His hair was in dreadlocks and pulled back by a red scarf. On top of his head he wore a beat up old hat, that looked like it had seen better days. He was dressed in a ragged shirt and vest, and wore a long brown coat. Sora also noticed that he was carrying a sword, and pistol that was tucked securely in his belt.

"Who...are you?" Sora asked wearily, his eyes still on the strange mans sword.

"I think the real question is, who are you and what are you doing on my ship?" The strange man retorted.

"I'm Sora," Sora said cautiously, "And I don't know why I'm on your ship. My...er...ship crashed you see, and I guess I blacked out after that."

"Ah, well then, its been nice talking to you, but I'll have to ask you to GET THE BLOODY HELL OFF MY SHIP!" The strange man yelled.

"Yes sir!" Sora said, quickly standing up and nearly falling off the side as he tried to keep his footing on the rolling ship. "Um, how exactly do I get off your ship if we're in the middle of the ocean?" Sora asked, looking around and seeing nothing but rolling waves.

"You know how to swim don't you?" The strange man asked, giving Sora a sideway's glance.

"Yes sir, but I still don't see..."

"Well then, off you go!" The strange man said giving Sora a cheery wave and wobbling off towards the other end of the ship.

Sora stood dumbstruck as the odd man walked off as if he was drunk.

"There's no way I'm jumping off this ship," Sora muttered, still trying to steady himself, "Maybe I can hid away until we reach land. I've always wanted to be a pirate."

Sora stumbled in the opposite direction as the strange man had gone, and soon found a pile wooden crates stacked at the bow of the ship. Hoisting himself, over the first one, he found a small opening between the crates and slipped into it. He knew that he would be cramped in the morning, but he really didn't care.

* * *

"I still don't know why you insisted on me coming along," Cloud muttered angrily, as him and Leon ascended the stairs leading to the King's study. 

"Because its your fault that he ran off," Leon replied angrily, "You should have stopped him."

They arrived at the large double doors and Leon knocked twice.

"Come in!" A voice called from behind the door.

Leon and Cloud entered the large room, having to duck down as they went through the small door at the bottom of the large left door. The room was lined with many tall book shelves that stretched upwards out of sight. Tucked behind a curve in the book shelves sat the king at a modest white desk.

"Your highness," said Leon, bowing, "We have some bad news I'm afraid. Sora's run off, and we have no idea where he is."

The king sighed, "I was afraid this might happen, well, tell me the whole story."

Leon told the king what had happened in Space Paranoids and when Sora had woken up, with Cloud chiming in ever once in a while.

"Well, this is all very disturbing news," the king said, "Have you tried to track his Gummi ship through the tracking Gummi you installed in his ship?"

"Yes, but it seems as though he ripped it out before taking off. We've tried contacting him too, but he's out of range."

"Yes, he's no idiot, he would know that you wouldn't be able to contact him if he were out of range. But that must also mean he is out of gas, which means that he's either drifting helplessly in space or has crash landed on a world."

"But how do we find him with odds like that? He could be anywhere!"

"I have a solution," King Mickey said, smiling kindly at Leon and Cloud, "I would like you to meet a very interesting young man that just showed up a few hours before you did. He's not in the best shape right now, but I'm sure he'd be willing to help us." The king turned to a small door hidden behind his desk, "Axel, you can come in now."

Leon and Cloud looked up to see a thin boy, who looked several year's older then Sora, enter the room. He had fiery red hair and wore a black Organization coat. As he approached Leon and Cloud, they could see that he walked with a slight limp and was covered in cuts and bruises.

"Axel, I would like you to meet Cloud Strife, and Squall Leonhart, Leon for short."

The red headed boy merely nodded in their direction as he leaned against a book shelf, his arms crossed.

"Whats a member of Organization XIII doing here?" Cloud asked, eying the strange boy contemptuously.

"He is no longer a member of Organization XIII," the king said, "He was marked as a traitor and imprisoned many months ago. He has only just managed to escape and has come here in hopes of helping Sora."

"Is that so?" Cloud said still eying the red headed boy with a look of distrust, "How do we know that he isn't a spy?"

"That's quite enough Cloud," the king said, sternly, "I trust that this boy is telling the truth, and that should be enough for you."

"Yes your highness," Cloud mutter begrudgingly, "I apologize."

"So, if you're here to help Sora, whats your plan?" Leon asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well, I trust that you've tried to contact him from Radiant Garden, right?" Axel asked Leon, giving Cloud a cold look.

"Thats right, and we also attempted to contact him while on our way here."

"So, my guess is that, even on a full tank of fuel, his ship would have only made it a small distance out of range. Which means that for him to be out of range from Radiant Garden and Disney Castle, he would have to be between these to points."

Axel walked over to the kings desk and pulled out a map of the surrounding worlds, and pointed to two separate points in space.

"How'd you know that?" Cloud asked, trying but failing to be unimpressed.

"When you don't have a heart, you have a lot of time on your hands. Most of the Organization members have picked up strange hobbies in hopes it will fill that empty space."

"And does it work?" Cloud asked rather sheepishly.

"We like to pretend it does," Axel said, folding up the map and stowing it in his pocket. "We seem to do a lot of that, pretending. You could call us the worlds biggest phonies. But most adults are, phonies I mean."

"So do you think you'll be able to find Sora?" the king asked Axel.

"Yeah, he's either drifting in space or on Port Royal. I should be able to find him pretty easily."

"Now hold on a minute!" Leon said, "Why is he coming with us to find Sora?"

"He's not coming with you, he's going with out you." the king said.

"But why?" Asked Cloud.

"Do you really think Sora would come back with either of you at this point? He would probably run away from you the minute you got there."

"Yeah," Leon said sighing, and turning to address Axel, "Ok, but if you harm one hair on that boy's head, I swear I will kick your ass."

"Don't worry old man, I'll make sure he gets back safely."

* * *

Sora woke up feeling sick, "Ugh, I never want to become a pirate," he muttered, stretching as much as he could in the small nook where he had spent the night. He almost wished he had jumped off the boat, at least he wouldn't have been as sea sick. Peaking out from the small stack of crates, he saw that the ship had come alive since the night before. Crew men ran back and forth, trimming the sails and scrubbing the decks. 

All of a sudden, a large man with outrageous side burns popped up in front of Sora.

"Boo!" The man said.

"Aaarrgghh!" Sora screamed, and scrambled backwards trying to escape. But he felt someone grab the back of his shirt from behind and pull him out from behind the crates. Twisting around he saw a man with a brightly colored parrot sitting on his shoulder was hanging on to him.

"Ah and what have we here?" the man with the side burns asked, "A stowaway, eh? Ah, the captain's not going to like this at all. Mr. Cotton, would you kindly escort this young man to the brig?"

Cotton did not answer, but his parrot let out a horrible squawk and he began dragging Sora down into the bowls of the ship. Sora was finally released into a dirty cell, that housed about an inch of grime on the floor. Grabbing the cell door, Sora began to shake it.

"Hey! Let me out of here!" he yelled, hoping that the old cell door would break free, "Hello!"

"Oi, stop your gabbing!" Said the man with the side burns, appearing from another part of the ship and leading the strange man from the night before. "I found 'em hiding beneath some crates captain."

"Very good Mr. Gibbs," the strange man who appeared to be the captain said as he approached Sora's cell. "Oh not you again!" he said, as he saw Sora, "Look mate, I don't give free rides, savvy?"

"I don't want a free ride, I want to get off this ship! Preferably on land."

"Well, I'm disinclined to acquiesce to you request." Said the captain turning away from Sora.

"What are you going to do to me then?" Sora asked, panicking, "You're not just going to leave me here are you?"

"Oh alright, we'll be in Port Royal in two day's." The captain said, looking annoyed, "You can get off there, but don't expect to be let out of there, you're lucky I'm not making you walk the plank, savvy?"

With that the captain and Mr. Gibbs walked away, leaving Sora all alone in the filthy cell.

* * *

**Blabbing:**

MWAHAHAHA yes! Finally the appearance of Captain Jack Sparrow! Ah, the wonderfulness of it all! And the reappearance of Axel, whom hasn't been seen in quite awhile. Poor thing, he's all limpy and bruised. smacks Riku This is all your fault! But yes, a much less dramatic chapter then the last, but hopefully as good. I like the fact that even though Leon and Cloud are young, they are still older then most of the main characters (Riku, Sora, Roxas, Axel, Kairi) so Axel considers them "Old men". I tried to sneak in some Catcher in the Rye in, but I'll let you guys figure out where that is. So thanks for the reviews and leave some more!


	14. Nights of the Cursed

**Blade of Light: Nights of the Cursed**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my insanity.**

**Author's note:**

Oh my, the hotness continues. Let us commence the parade of sexyness. I've become awfully attached to Roxas since I replayed Kingdom Hearts II and its lovely 3 hour tutorial (even if he is Jesse Macartney). He's one of those people you hate to love (both Roxas and Jesse I guess). Thank you for all of your lovely (as always) reviews. To **Aesura,** thank you for pointing out the typo of Roxas's hair color, I'll get around to changing it eventually...But yes, it is blond.

So please read, enjoy and review!

um...for some reason the ruler tool isn't working, so I'm sorry for the odd seperations between parts.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roxas and Riku both peered into the empty cell where Axel had once been.

"Who was on guard when this happened?" Roxas demanded, turning to Saïx.

"Demyx," Saïx said smirking, "bumbling idiot that he is, he was jumped by Axel as he brought in his meal."

"Fool," Riku said coldly, leaning against the wall, "We should eliminate him, he's screwed up to many times."

"Hmm, yes, I will talk to Lord Xemnas." Roxas said, turning away from the empty cell. "Well as fascinating as this all is, I'm going back to bed," Roxas said, shooting Riku a significant look. "Unless theres some other bad news you would like to tell me Saïx?"

"No, no, only that the key bearer seems to be missing." Saïx said in a sing-song voice.

"OH LOVELY," Roxas said, grabbing Riku's hand and leading him out of the dungeon.

"What now Roxas?" Riku asked, trying to stifle a yawn.

"We go see Lord Xemnas and see what he has to say." Roxas replied leading the yawning Riku down a long hall. Stopping at the familiar study door, Roxas knocked.

"What do you want?" Came an annoyed voice from beyond the door.

"Sir, its an emergency." Roxas said impatiently.

"Fine, come in."

Roxas opened the door and dragged Riku into the room. They both bowed and then Roxas started talking.

"Sir, the key bearer's gone missing."

"I'm well aware of that, did you have to interrupt me?" Xemnas asked, irritably.

"Well sir, I was wondering what your plan of action was."

"It's already been taken care of," Xemnas said, preoccupied with the papers that sat in front of him. "We located him again, don't worry. Luxord has everything under control, I promise you."

Roxas stood there dumbstruck, his eyes flashing angrily.

"Is that all you wanted?" Xemnas said, looking up at the fuming Roxas.

"Roxas," Riku nudged the other boy.

Roxas seemed to snap out of it, "Yes sir, sorry to bother you."

Roxas and Riku both bowed again before Roxas stormed out of the room, still dragging Riku along with him.

"Can we go back to bed now?" Riku whined, yawning again.

"And what? Leave everything to Luxord?" Roxas asked angrily.

"Well...yes, Lord Xemnas did say that he had it under control didn't he?"

Roxas grabbed the front of Riku's cloak and slammed him against the wall, "Are you suggesting that we ignore the key bearer? Do you want to let him win! Don't you want a heart!" Roxas screamed in Riku's face.

"Roxas...it's not that...it's just..." Riku stammered.

"It's just what! You just don't want to hurt him anymore? Is that it?" Roxas screamed, still grasping the front of Riku's cloak.

"No, its just that Lord Xemnas said that it was under control, don't you think that we should wait and let him give the orders?"

"So now he's the one in charge of this operation! I suppose you think that everything has been his plan, right!"

"No, no," Riku said, trying to calm Roxas down, "I know that you're the mastermind behind all this, but don't you think it's a good idea to let him believe he's in charge? If he figures out that you're using him, it will be the end of your plan."

Riku could feel Roxas's grip relax, and breathed a sigh of relief as the younger boy leaned against him.

"You're right," he mumbled into Riku's chest, still gently clutching Riku's cloak, "I'm sorry, I didn't hurt you did I?" he asked, looking up into Riku's eyes.

"No, not at all," Riku said, smiling down at the younger boy.

"Good," mumbled Roxas quietly, yawning and closing his eyes.

Riku chuckled and picked up the sleeping Roxas. "Just like Sora," he thought smiling, "He has a short fuse, and wears out quickly." Riku carried Roxas down a dimly lit corridor, "Oh Sora, what trouble have you gotten into now?" Riku thought, opening the door to their room, "Did you run away from Radiant Garden, or are you traveling the worlds with you new friends trying to stop us?"

Riku lay Roxas down on the bed, and went to sit down in his favorite chair. Sighing, he leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling, "I wonder, who's nobody am I? Who's soul am I a part of?"

"_You have a heart, I know it."_

"I wish..." Riku mumbled, starting to drift into a troubled sleep, "I wish I was part of yours..."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oi get up you mangy git, the captain's wanting to have a word with you."

Sora looked up at the nameless crew member that had been sent to get him. Glaring up at him, he said "You can tell your captain that I am disinclined to acquiesce to his request."

"Well...I...what?" the crew member growled at Sora.

"It means no," Sora said, giving the pirate a annoyed look.

"Arr, you'll be going to see the captain whether you like it or not." Said the crew member angrily, opening the cell door and grabbing Sora by the arm.

Sora tried to pull lose of the pirates grip, but a week without food had weakened him. Following the crew member dejectedly, Sora stumbled up several stair cases and was lead onto the main deck of the ship. Looking around he saw that they were moored behind a cliff, and beyond the cliff he could see a small harbor town.

"In 'ere," the pirate said, pulling Sora gruffly through a door and into a large cabin, "I've brought the boy, jus' like you asked captain.

"Very good, very good, you can return to you duty's." Said the Captain.

"Aye sir," the crew member said, and left the cabin, leaving Sora and the captain alone.

"Well...er...hello there," said the captain, giving the grime covered Sora a sideway's glance.

"What do you want?" Sora asked, glaring angrily at the man, summoning his keyblade and brandishing at him, "No, more importantly, why did you leave me in the cell for a week with no food? I thought you said that we would be in Port Royal in two days!"

"Yes, well, about that," he said, leaning back away from Sora, "We ran into a spot of trouble on our way here. But we're here now! And I bet you're quite ready to get of this ship, and er...take a bath...or something..." He was interrupted by a knock on the door. Standing up from his seat behind his desk, he walked over to the door trying to stay as far away from Sora as possible and opened the door.

"Yes!" he yelled, at a young man standing outside of the door. "Ah, young William, you got my message I presume?"

"Yes, but I still don't understand what all this is about Jack," the young man said, stepping into the cabin and shutting the door behind him. Noticing the very angry and filth covered Sora still holding the keyblade standing in front of him, he gave Jack a questioning look, "Who's this Jack?"

"A stowaway, Gibbs found him hiding between some crates."

Sora glared at the young man, who looked at Sora with interest. "And what might your name be?"

"Sora, but you still haven't introduced yourself yet _sir_," Sora said, sarcastically.

"William Turner," said the young man, holding out his hand, which Sora ignored.

"And you, _captain_?"

"Jack Sparrow," said the strange man, still trying to stay as far away from Sora as he could, "And may I inquire as to what that thing is you're holding?"

Noticing that he was still brandishing the keyblade, Sora hastily put it away, "It's...just uh...special sword...thing..."

"Right..." Jack said, not sounding totally convinced. "Will you excuse us for a moment?" He asked, grabbing Will and pulling him to the far corner of the room.

"See, didn't I tell you?" Jack whispered to Will so that Sora wouldn't over hear them.

"Yes he does look a lot like the other stranger, but honestly Jack, he's just a boy. Are you sure that he's the one who the stranger asked about?"

"You saw that...sword thingy he's got!" Jack hissed, giving Sora another sideway's glance, "Thats not like any weapon I've ever seen, but you're the blacksmith, you tell me."

"I have to admit it is rather odd," Will said, also looking at Sora, "But do you really think that he's the chosen one that stranger talked about? I mean look at him, he doesn't look very strong, he's a bit on the thin side too."

"Yes, well so are you, but that doesn't stop you from trying to win dear Elizabeth's affection."

At this Will turned red, "Well...I...whats you point then?" he asked flustered.

"You take him back with you to Port Royal, get him...er...cleaned up," Jack said, "And er...get to know each other, he may prove to be useful later."

"You called me all the way out here so I could take care of some kid?"

"Precisely!" Jack said, grinning at Will, "Just think about it dear William, you introduce him to Elizabeth, and she sees how sensitive and helpful you are. Bob's your uncle, Fanny's you aunt, you've won her over from the dear Commodore, savvy?"

Will looked at Jack, not seeming completely convinced.

"Plus it gives you an excuse to drop by her house, because honestly dear William," Jack said, giving Will a sideways glance, "I don't think you're exactly equipped to support two people, am I right? What does a blacksmith get paid these days?"

Will glared at Jack and turned to Sora, "Come, we must get back to Port Royal before the navy sees this ship, they don't act kindly towards pirates."

"Farewell young William," said Jack, waving merrily, "and to you Sora, try not to die!"

Jack slammed the door in their faces and they were left standing on the ships deck, where it had begun to rain.

"What does he mean, 'try not to die'?" Sora asked, giving Will a perplexed look and following him over to the side of the ship where a small boat had been tied.

"Theres something you need to know about Jack Sparrow," Will said, climbing down into the boat, "He's not to be trusted, just like all pirates. He'll use you for his needs and then drop you like an old boot, understand?"

Sora nodded as he followed Will into the boat and helped him untie it from the ship.

"So what does he want with me?" Sora asked, as they rowed away from the ship, which proved to be difficult as the storm proceeded to get worse.

"Leverage, most likely," Will yelled over the wind, "He wants the Black Pearl back in a bad way, and he'll do anything it takes to get it back, even sell out his friends. So, its best that you keep an eye on Jack when ever you're around him."

A large wave swept over the small boat, leaving both Sora and Will soaked to the bone. By the time they had arrived in the harbor, Sora was no longer covered in the worst of the filth from the cell, but instead sopping wet and freezing. Tying the boat to the dock, Sora followed Will into the small town and to a small mansion that sat on a hill overlooking the town.

"You live _here_!" Sora asked, surprised that Will was able to afford such a large house.

"No, but I thought that you might like a proper bath." Will said, leading Sora around the back to what seemed to be the servants entrance and knocking, "I live above the blacksmith shop where I work, but I just have a wash basin, and no offense mate, but you need better then that."

The door opened and a short, plump looking woman poked her head out.

"Mr. Turner! What 're you doing calling at this time of th' night? And soaking wet at that!" the woman noticed Sora, who at this point looked like a drowned rat. "And 'o's this? Poor thing, looks like he hasn't had a proper meal in weeks! Come in, come in!" she said, opening the door wider and ushering them both in.

"Is Miss. Swan here?" Will asked, looking eagerly at the plump woman as she fussed over Sora.

"She's up stairs resting," said the woman, "I'll tell her you're here, but first lets get you a bath dear, shall we?" she said, examining the grime that covered Sora.

"Yes please!" said Sora, rather enthusiastically.

Twenty minutes later, a much cleaner and warmer Sora was sitting and scarfing down his sixth helping of stew. He had ditched his wet, grime covered clothes for a pair of clothes that Will had brought him. He wore a white button up shirt, with long flowing sleeves and over that was a brown vest. He also wore a pair of knee length pants, that gave way to knee socks and a brown pair of shoes.

As Sora finished his sixth bowl, a pretty young woman entered the kitchen wearing a dressing gown.

"Will? What are you doing here at this time of night?" She asked, eying Will's wet clothes, "What were you doing, swimming in the harbor?"

"Well...I...uh..." Will stuttered, struggling to string two words together.

Luckily, the young woman noticed Sora, who was starting in on his seventh bowl of stew.

"Who's this?" She asked, looking concerned, "Will, what have you been doing? Starving the boy? Look how thin he is!" she said, giving Sora a piteous look. "Whats your name?"

"Sora," Sora said through a mouth full of stew, "and Will wasn't the one starving me, it was Jack Sparrow."

"Jack found him hiding away on the Interceptor." Will said quickly at the livid look on the young woman's face.

"I wasn't hiding away, I just woke up on his ship, honest!" Sora said.

"Jack Sparrow!" the young woman said angrily, "Just you wait, when I get my hands on him, I'll...I'll...Does that man have no morals! Honestly, all he's worried about is how to get back the Black Pearl!"

"It's ok, I've suffered worse," Sora said, putting down his bowl and yawning.

"I swear, one day he's going to have the chance to do the right thing, and he'll just wave at it as it passes by."

"Try and calm down Miss. Swann," Will said, rubbing his eyes, "The boy's fine now, right Sora?"

Will and Elizabeth both looked back at Sora, who had fallen asleep at the table.

"We should be going," Will said, picking up Sora and swinging him over his shoulder, "Thank you for everything." Will said, turning to the plump woman.

Elizabeth walked Will and the sleeping Sora to the back door to bid them good night.

"Good night Miss. Swann," Will said.

"Will, how many times must I ask you to call me Elizabeth?" asked Elizabeth, annoyed.

"At least once more Miss. Swann, as always." Will said nervously.

"Good evening, Mr. Turner," Elizabeth said coldly, closing the door in Will's face.

Will sighed and started to walked back to the blacksmith shop, Sora still fast asleep. The storm had passed, and there was a full moon shining down on the small harbor town. Walking up the stairs that sat to the side of the blacksmith shop, Will noticed an odd black ship lingering outside of the harbor, but paid it no mind as he unlocked the door and entered the small room that he called home.

Lying Sora down on the bed, Will walked over to the small window that over looked the harbor. He saw that the black ship had started to approach the harbor. As he stood watching, the ship fired its cannons at the fort where the navy was stationed.

"What the— Pirates?" he muttered, still trying to figure out what was going on.

Another shot was fired, it hit a chimney in the lower part of town. Will looked down to see people appearing at their doorway's in dressing gowns to see what all the commotion was about. Suddenly small, dark things with glowing eyes started appearing out of the ground. The people in their doorways started screaming and trying to escape the strange creatures but their efforts were in vain.

Will looked back towards the ship to see three small long boats overflowing with pirates making their way to shore. Turning away from the window, Will grabbed his sword and barreled out of the door.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Sora awoke in the morning to find the apartment empty. Yawning and stretching, Sora swung his legs over the side of the bed, and walked over to the window. Sora gasped at the sight that met his eyes. The small harbor town had been mostly destroyed, smoke was rising from several buildings below and there was rubbled lying everywhere. The towns folk who were left were gloomily cleaning up what was left of their town.

"Oh, no...Will!" Sora said, turning away from the window, wrenching open the door and running down the steps. He weaved his way between the down trodden towns folk, searching desperately for any sign of Will. Stopping a tired looking man, Sora asked, "Have you seen Will Turner?"

"Will Turner? Yeah, I saw 'im. Been arrested by the gov'ner 'asn't 'e?"

"Arrested! Why?"

"Suspected of conspiring wif the pirates that attacked the port last night."

"What!"

"'s true, an' they say 'e had a partner, but them navy types haven't caught 'im yet." said the man, starting to push his cart down the street, leaving Sora standing alone.

"Hey! You!"

Sora looked up to see two red coated men running towards him.

"You're under arrest by the order of Governor Swann."

"Oh great, now they think I'm a pirate." Sora muttered turning to run, but running into someone and falling to the ground. Looking up, Sora saw a severe looking man in a white wig and blue coat.

"Going somewhere? Pirate," the man said, sneering down at Sora.

"Not any more?" Sora said nervously.

"See to it that he is locked up," the man said, to the two red coated men, who had caught up to them.

"Yes sir Commodore!" the two men said, clamping a crude pair of handcuffs on Sora and dragged him off.

-------------------------------------------

"Sora!" Will gasped, as the two guards dragged Sora towards the cell where Will sat. The two guards tossed Sora into the cell next to Will's and stocked off.

"Will, whats going on?" Sora asked, standing up and walking over to the bars that separated the two cells, "Why are we suspected for conspiring with pirates? And what happened last night?"

"The Black Pearl attacked the port last night, the navy thinks that we helped them slip into port. They apparently saw us coming back from the Interceptor last night."

"No..."

"Yeah, thats not the worst of it either. There were these strange creatures that showed up and attacked the towns people."

"Strange...creatures?"

"They were black and had glowing yellow eyes," Will said.

"Heartless!" Sora muttered angrily, "Were there others?"

"Yes, many others. I tried to stop them, but they attacked the governor's mansion." Will slammed his fist against the bars, "They took Miss. Swann!"

"Oh, good, so we're all on the same page then?" Came a familiar voice from behind Sora.

Turning around, they saw Jack Sparrow standing in front of the cell, swinging a keyring around his finger.

"Jack!" they both yelled.

"Thought you could use a bit of help," Jack said, unlocking the cells, "Of course, help comes at a price these days."

"What price?" Sora asked, following Jack up the stairs and out onto the ruined battlements of the fort.

"We'll talk about that later," Jack said, "I think someone misses you already!"

Sora and Will turned to see several groups of red coated guards running towards them.

"How are we going to escape?" Will asked, nervously as the guards surrounded them, closing off all escape routes.

"Lets see..." Jack said, looking around, "Ah here we are, you first Sora."

"Whaa—!" Sora yelled as Jack gave him a shove off the battlements.

"You next Mr. Turner!" Jack said merrily, giving a horrified Will a shove and turning to the guards, "Now gents, this will be the day that you will always remember as the day," Said Jack, backing towards the edge of the battlement, "that you, almost, caught, Captain, Ja—!" the back of Jack's boot hit a lose piece of stone and he fell backward off the edge.

Sora surfaced to see a flailing Jack Sparrow hit the water. Moments later, a sputtering Will surfaced and a few minutes after him a disgruntled looking Jack.

"What was that for!" Sora yelled at Jack.

"Well, you wanted to escape, and that just seemed to be the quickest way." Jack said, seeming to have difficulty treading water. "Come, we have much to talk about." Jack started swimming away towards a bend in the cliff. Sora and Will gave each other skeptical looks, but followed Jack around the bend.

As they rounded the bend, they could see a ship moored next to the cliff. They approached the ship, and Sora could see that the deck was bustling with activity. There were crew members scurrying around ever inch of the boat, all of them being directed by Mr. Gibbs.

They reached the side of the ship and climbed up a latter that had been thrown down.

"Ah, Captain!" Mr. Gibbs said, walking over to the three, "All the preparations are ready sir!"

"Excellent Mr. Gibbs," Jack said, ushering Sora and Will towards the cabin, "prepare to set sail..." Jack pulled out a battered looking compass and opened it, "That way," he said pointing to his right.

"Aye Captain," Mr. Gibbs said, stalking away and barking orders at the crew.

Jack lead Will and Sora into the cabin where they had met just yesterday. Jack sat down at a sea worn table and gestured for Sora and Will to do the same.

"Now, before you begin ranting on about saving Elizabeth," Jack said shooting Will a look, "I think you have some explaining to do, " Jack said, turning to Sora.

"Explaining? About what?" Sora asked, confused.

"About where you came from and why you're here." Jack said, "And I'll be asking the questions from here on, savvy?"

Sora sighed and nodded, "I came here from another world, I was...running away and my ship crash landed here."

"Another world?" Will asked, giving Sora an unbelieving look.

"Oi! I'm asking the questions here!" Jack said angrily, "Another world?"

"Yes, I know its hard to believe, I didn't believe it at first either, but there are other worlds out there. All of them are connected by their hearts," Sora said, "and of course, just like our hearts, they posses darkness. Thats why I'm here I guess, to bring light back to your world and lock the darkness out of its heart."

"You didn't mean to come here, but you ran away from your world and now that you're here your going to seal its heart away from the darkness?" Jack said, "Is that what your saying?"

"Yeah, I guess..." Sora said, looking sheepishly at his feet, "Look I know it sounds crazy but its true. A lot of people have been hurt in this fight between the dark and the light, including one of my best friends."

"So...this isn't the first time you've locked the heart of a world?" Jack asked, perplexed.

Sora shook his head, "Its my destiny, I'm the chosen wielder of the keyblade."

"Keyblade?" Will asked, ignoring a venomous look from Jack.

Sora sighed and held out his hand in front of him, summoning the keyblade. "The keyblade, it can open or close any lock. It chooses its own master, and can only be wielded by the one it chooses. It's said that the keyblade has the power to either save the universe or to unleash chaos upon it. Thats why I must fight the darkness I guess, to save the universe."

"So you really are the chosen one..." Jack said, giving Sora a look as if to size him up. "Now, one last question, whats your connection to Organization XIII?"

-------------------------------------------

**Blabbing:**

Yay for Pirates of the Carribean and Captain Jack Sparrow. Unfortunately, Axel didn't get to show up in this chapter, but he'll be in the next, I promise. I wonder why whenever the characters go to talk to Xemnas, its in his study. I guess I just see Xemnas as a very studious kind of guy. I don't really have much else to say, thank you to everyone who leaves constant reviews (I would list your names, but I'd be afraid I would forget one of you wonderful people). Hope you enjoyed the pirates!


	15. He's a Pirate

**Blade of Light: He's a Pirate**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.**

**Author's Note:**

GAH! I'm so so so so so soooo X 1 million, sorry that it took me so long to get this chapter done. It was one of those things that just kept not getting done. I just recently got into an MMORPG and it completely ate my life for a week, and then I have a Anime convention that I'm going to at the end of this week and of course I have like nothing done on my cosutmes O.O''. Lets just say its been a rough few weeks. So, thank you thank you thank you for being so patient with me, and for all of your reviews, and for just reading, because I know that a lot of you guys have already started school (I start next week), so thank you for taking time to read this! Read and Review! Please Enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------- (The ruler tool still doesn't work!)

Elizabeth sat at a elaborately set table filled with all manor of foods. She was wearing a dark red dress, and an angry look on her face.

"Ah, Miss. Turner, so sorry to keep you waiting."

Elizabeth looked up to see Barbossa enter the cabin and take a seat opposite from her at the table. A nameless crew member came in and started serving the two diners.

"Captain Barbossa," Elizabeth said glaring across the table as the crew member set a plate in front of her. She started to cut the food into small, bite sized pieces.

"Theres no need for ceremony in order to impress anyone," Barbossa said, watching Elizabeth eat in a very lady like fashion, "You must be hungry."

Elizabeth gave Barbossa a begrudging look but began to wolf down the food that occupied her plate. Chicken, bread, wine, it all disappeared instantly before her eyes.

"Have some more wine," Barbossa said, grinning, "and the apples, one of those next."

Elizabeth stopped eating and looked up at Barbossa with a terrified look on her face, "Its poisoned," She gasped, dropping the bread she was holding back onto the plate.

"Now, now Miss. Swann, theres no need for me to be killing you yet."

"Then why did you kidnap me? Is it for ransom? Because my father would never pay money to filthy pirates like yourselves."

"An intriguing offer, but no, I'm afraid you presence here is a mistake Miss," Barbossa said, leaning back in his chair, "Or maybe its destiny, would you care to hand over that medallion that you've so cleverly hidden?"

"I don't know what medallion you talking about Captain Barbossa," Elizabeth said flippantly.

"Don't waste you time trying to trick me Miss. Turner, you don't know what it is, do ya?" Barbossa said, leaning forward again.

"It's a pirate medallion," Elizabeth said matter of factly.

"Oh, it be much more then that," Barbossa said, grinning, "It be Aztec gold, one of hundreds of identical pieces Cortes hid on the Isla de Muerta. Took it we did, we spent it, traded it and frittered it away on food, drink and pleasurable company alike. But soon we came to realize that the drink did not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths, and all the pleasurable company alike could not stave our lust."

"I hardly believe in ghost story's anymore Captain Barbossa," Elizabeth said skeptically.

"Well, you best start believing in ghost story's Miss. Turner," Came a voice from the door way, "You're in one."

Elizabeth turned to see a tall, blond man in a black coat standing in the doorway. The door was open behind him and she could see the crew standing in a group just outside of the door. But it wasn't the crew she had seen when she was brought aboard the ship, it was a crew of ragged looking skeletons.

"What...!" Elizabeth gasped, looking horrified at the skeleton crew.

"The moon light shows us for what we really are," Barbossa said, with a bemused look on his face at Elizabeth's reaction. "We be cursed men Miss. Turner, we are not among the living, but yet, we cannot die."

"Then what do you want with me? The medallion? Well, take it," Elizabeth pulled the medallion off her neck and threw it across the table to Barbossa.

"Oh, I'm afraid thats not all we want," Barbossa said, smiling and pocketing the medallion. "You see, now we have the final piece, but we still need the blood to be repaid to the heathen gods."

"Blood to be repaid?"

"Thats why there's no sense to be killing you...yet."

Barbossa laughed at the horrified expression on Elizabeth's face. "But don't worry Miss Turner, thats not the nature of our present business, Luxord?"

The tall blond closed the door behind him and took up a seat at the table.

"Wh-Who are you?" Elizabeth asked.

"My name is Luxord, and I work for Organization XIII. And now a question for you Miss. Turner, where is the key bearer?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sora stood peering over the side of the ship, watching the blackness of the sea wash by. They were headed for the Ilsa de Muerta, a place where Jack promised Barbossa would turn up, but Sora couldn't help but feel like things were going to go wrong.

"I shouldn't drag Will and the others into this," he thought wishing he could be swallowed up by the black ocean, "I can't allow the Organization to hurt anyone else."

"Feeling a little sea sick?" Sora looked up to see Will standing next to him, smiling kindly.

"Uh...yeah," Sora replied, feeling guilty for getting a nice guy like Will involved with the Organization.

"Don't worry mate, it happens to most people. We'll be entering port soon, so just hold out a little longer ok?"

"Entering port? But I thought that the Ilsa de Muerta was really far off!"

"It is, which is why we'll be stopping in Tortuga to resupply." Will looked unhappy at this, but gave Sora a reassuring look. "Don't worry, just stay close to me or Jack and you'll be fine."

"Yeah, ok..." Sora said, turning back to stare at the ocean.

Will gave him a closer look, "Something tells me that its not just sea sickness thats bothering you."

"What? Oh, its just that...I don't want you or Elizabeth getting hurt," Sora said, "Last time someone tried to help me, they...well...the Organization wasn't very forgiving. I don't want you or Elizabeth to get tangled up in this mess."

"Look Sora, I don't know whats happened in the past, or why you decided to get involved with Organization XIII," Will said.

"I told you, they want to open Kingdom Hearts and destroy the universe."

"Yes, well, it seems to me that theres another reason beyond saving the universe, but thats your business, but no matter what happens, I've got you back Sora, ok?" Will gave Sora a reassuring smile.

"Thanks Will..." Sora said, giving him a weak smile but feeling his insides clench with guilt.

"No problem Sora," Will said, smiling and leaving Sora alone again.

Sora sighed, and looked back down towards the water, he felt bad that he would be ditching Will, especially after seeing how worried he was about Elizabeth, but he couldn't let the Organization kill anyone else. He would save Elizabeth and stop the Organization on his own.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We will reconvene here tomorrow morning, Savvy?" Jack said, standing in front of his crew, "Does everyone remember their jobs?"

"Aye!" The crew yelled, eager to get off the boat.

"Excellent! Have at it then!"

The rest of the crew swarmed off the boat leaving Sora, Will and Jack standing alone on the deck.

"You haven't given us a job yet Jack," Will said, as Jack tried to sneak off without talking to them.

"Oh, er...don't do anything stupid," Jack said, slipping away before Will could say anymore.

"I guess we're pretty much free to do what ever we want," Will said, watching Jack sneak off down an alley. "Do you want to get a drink?" Will asked, starting down the gangplank.

"Um...I'm not really of age," Sora said, following Will down a crowded street.

"Oh, right, well, do you want to walk around then?"

"Uh, why don't you go get a drink, I can meet you back here when you're done."

"You sure? I don't want you to get hurt or anything, Tortuga is a pretty rough place."

"Yeah its fine, I can take care of myself, besides, I've always got the keyblade."

"Ok," Will said, sounding unsure, "Don't wander to far." Will walked into a building to the right and disappeared.

Sora turned around and started towards the dock, hoping to find someone who could take him to the Ilsa de Muerta.

"Excuse me," he said, walking up to a weather beaten man loading supplies onto his ship, "Do you think you could give me passage to the Ilsa de Muerta?"

"Sorry mate," the man said giving Sora a frightened look, "No one knows where to find the Ilsa de Muerta except for Barbossa, and you'd be a fool to try and find it." The man turned away from Sora and went back to his work.

Half an hour later, Sora walked down another dock that was on the far side of the town. He had gotten all kinds of reactions from the people he asked, but none of them had agreed to take him to the Ilsa de Muerta. Frustrated, he kicked a near by bucket and sent it sprawling down the dock.

"You shouldn't get so angry," Said a voice behind him, "It could get you in trouble someday."

Sora turned to see a redheaded boy standing behind him wearing a black coat.

"Stay back!" Sora shouted, summoning his keyblade.

"Woah, you've got it all wrong kid, I'm on your side." Said the redheaded boy nervously.

"Yeah right," Sora said, pointing his keyblade at the boy, "I'm going to finish you here and now, you're not getting this world!" Sora lunged for the boy, but the keyblade only hit air. Looking around he saw that the boy had dodged behind him.

"I don't want to fight you," the boy said, "I've been sent by the king, to bring you back to Radiant Garden."

"You're lying!" Sora yelled, swinging his keyblade at the boy again and missing.

"I swear to you that I'm not," the boy said, keeping a careful distance away from Sora, "I used to work for the Organization, until your friend Riku showed up. I tried to help him escape, but they caught me before I could get him out, I've been marked as a traitor. They imprisoned me, but I escaped, and now I'm here to help you stop them."

"Why would you do something like that?" Sora asked wearily, "You should try to come up with more believable stories when you try to trick people."

"I'm not making this up," the boy said irritatedly, "I tried to help Riku because he reminded me of my friend, Roxas before he went crazy. I didn't want him to turn to darkness, and I didn't want you to have to suffer like I did."

Sora stood motionless, stunned at what the redheaded boy had told him.

"You...but...why?"

"I told you, I didn't want you two to go through the same thing I did when Roxas turned to darkness. We used to be best friends, until...until he decided to seek revenge on you and Riku. I hoped that if Riku escaped, he would give up and turn back into the Roxas I used to know."

"Why does Roxas want revenge on me and Riku? What did we ever do to him?"

"I don't know, he never told me the whole story. He just said that you two took away the power that he so desperately wanted. So Sora, do you trust me now?" the boy asked, holding out his hand.

Sora clasped the other boy's hand and smiled at him, "My heart tells me I can."

"I'm Axel," the redhead said, smiling back at Sora, "So, you ready to head back to Radiant Garden?"

Sora's smile faded, "I can't go back, not yet at least. I have to stop the Organization from winning this worlds heart, and I have to save Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth?" Axel asked, confused, "I thought you were in love with Riku."

At this Sora turned bright red, "Well...I'm not in love with Elizabeth, Will is. But I don't want to get him involved, I don't want anyone else getting hurt because they try to help me."

"Hey what about me?" Axel asked taken aback, "Your ok with _me_ getting hurt?"

"Well, no, but you know what the Organization is capable of, so you wouldn't go rushing into things, at least I hope you wouldn't." Sora said, giving Axel a skeptical look. "Will you help me Axel? I promise I'll go back once I make sure the Organization is stopped, and Elizabeth is safe."

Axel chuckled at this, "You're so much like him its uncanny."

"What?" Sora asked, confused, "Like who?"

"Oh, I'll tell you later," Axel said, still looking amused, "Lets go save this damsel in distress and stop the bad guy's ok? And then its strait back to Radiant Garden, your sister is worried about you."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elizabeth gave Luxord a confused look, "Key bearer? I don't know who you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb with me Miss, my patience is running thin. You had the key bearer's clothes in your house, there for you must have met him recently."

"Clothes...Do you mean Sora?"

"Yes, that is one of his many titles. So, where is he?" Luxord said.

"With Will I expect, trying to find me. What ever it is your trying to do, you won't get away with it, they'll stop you." Elizabeth said, glaring at Luxord.

"Ha, we'll see about that Miss," said Luxord smiling at Elizabeth's comment, "Even though it was an accident that the heartless brought you here, your presence here will be of use to me and if I'm not mistaken, my friend Barbossa here as well."

"Aye," Barbossa said grinning at Elizabeth, "Bo'Sun!" he shouted.

A shirtless crew member with strange body markings came into the room, "Aye sir?"

"Show Miss. Turner here to her quarters, I'm sure she must be tired."

"Aye captain," Bo'sun said, grabbing Elizabeth's arm and dragging her out of the room.

"Now," said Barbossa, once Elizabeth had left the room, "You wanted to speak about our deal?"

"Yes," Luxord said, "I want the help of your pirates to capture the key bearer. I wish to use the girl as a trap."

"And what are you willing to pay for such a service?"

"This," Luxord held up the pirate medallion that Elizabeth had thrown at Barbossa.

"Why you filthy, stinking, bilge rat!" Barbossa exclaimed, stuffing his hand into his pocket, but finding nothing.

"The deal, Barbossa, is you help me capture the key bearer, and I'll lift your little curse, agreed?"

"Agreed," Barbossa growled angrily, "Now get out of my sight."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luxord smiled at Barbossa and bowed before he turned and walked out the door.

"Jack!" Will came sprinting down the dock towards the Interceptor where Jack was supervising the loading of supplies.

"Ah young William, just in time." Jack said, "We shall be departing as soon as we load all the rum."

"Jack," Will panted, trying to catch his breath, "Sora—he gave me the slip. We have to find him."

"Yes, yes, thats all well and go—What!" Jack screamed, turning to look at Will. "You let him get away!"

"He just disappeared, I went into the pub for about twenty minutes to get a drink and gather information, and when I came back out he was gone. I asked around to see if anyone had seen him."

"And!" Jack asked desperately.

"Well, it seems that he's already left, and he was with a strange looking redheaded boy." Will said, "Nobody knew where they went though, or what ship they left on."

"I thought I told you not to do anything stupid!" Sora heard Jack yell at Will from the other side of the ship.

"Come on, we can hide in the cargo hold." He whispered to Axel who was floating in the water next to him. They swam over to one of the mooring ropes and climbed up it towards the holes that housed the cannons. Pushing the cannon back, Sora pulled himself through the small hole. Looking behind him he saw Axel poke his head through the hole and then pull himself through.

The two boys made there way through the cannons to the stairs that led down to the hold. Peaking around the wall, Sora saw the crew bringing box upon box down into the cargo hold.

"No good," He said, turning back to Axel, who was waiting behind him, "We'll have to wait here until there done loading the hold."

"But Jack!" they heard Will shout from the stairs, Sora looked around the corner again to see Will following Jack angrily down the stairs. "We cannot leave him here!"

"Ah, that is where you are wrong dear William." Jack said, inspecting one of the crates that a crew member was carrying and pulling a bottle from it. "We are not leaving him here, for as you have said, he has already left Tortuga. From what I gather, he has decided to pursue Barbossa on his own, so," Jack said, taking a swig from the bottle, "He must still be on this ship."

"What! But the man on the dock said that he had left on another ship."

"Dear William, since when have you trusted a pirate?" Jack asked, looking amused, "Seeing as he is headed for the Isla de Muerta, there is no other ship he could possibly be on, for I am the only one besides Barbossa who knows its location, savvy? So, Sora, its time to come out of your hidey-hole, where are you hiding?"

"What now?" Axel whispered to Sora, moving back towards the shadows.

Sora sighed and walked around the corner, revealing his hiding place.

"There you are dear William, he's safe and sound," Jack said, taking another drink from the bottle, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a ship to run."

Sora and Axel sat on pile of ropes under a brilliant night sky. As punishment for running away, they had to sleep outside of the crew quarters. Jack had offered them the brig, but Sora wasn't keen on spending anymore time there, and so they had been sent to the deck to sleep.

"At least its a nice night," Sora said to an angry looking Axel.

"I don't know why I'm being punished with you, I wasn't the one who ran away," Axel grumbled, "Or revealed our hiding spot."

"They would have found us eventually," Sora said, leaning back to look up at the sky, "We'll be at the Ilsa de Muerta soon anyway."

"Yeah," Axel said, also leaning back, "So what are you going to do now?"

"Wait until we get to Ilsa de Muerta I guess. Once we're there, we'll sneak off the ship on its only row boat. That way Will can't get involved, we can save Elizabeth and stop the Organization."

"Hmm, sounds like a fail proof plan chief," Axel said sarcastically, "Whats your problem with this Will guy anyway? What are you so afraid of?"

"I'm afraid he'll die, like Tron," Sora said quietly, "And it will be all my fault."

"Tron?" Axel asked, gently, "Who's Tron Sora?"

"He...he was my friend. He was a security program in Space Paranoids. When the Organization attacked, I went to Space paranoids and ended up in a pit cell with him. He wanted to help me escape, so we broke out of the cell and were trying to make it to the I.O. Tower," Sora said, trying to hold back tears, "But before we got there, we encountered Riku. He wanted the password to the DTD, and he...he attacked me. Tron, he tried to help me stop Riku, and then...then..." Tears started running down Sora's face, "I told him to go on, to get to the I.O. Tower, but he wouldn't listen. Riku...Riku killed him, and it was all my fault."

"Sora, it wasn't your fault," Axel said gently, putting a hand on Sora's head, "Tron did what he did to protect you, it was his choice and his choice alone."

"But if I didn't get him involved in the first place," Sora sobbed.

"You would be dead," Axel said, "and the Organization would have destroyed the universe. You can't change the past Sora, all you can do is keep fighting."

"Fighting for what?" Sora asked looking up, eyes glinting with tears.

"For a better future." Axel said, reaching over and wiping a tear from Sora's cheek.

"Axel earlier you said that I reminded you of someone," Sora said, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.

"Yeah, actually, you remind me of two people. Its almost scary how alike you are."

"Who are they?"

"You know them, very well in fact. Its unusual for a person to have two nobodies, but you do. It must have something to do with your heart, but when you became a heartless as a young child, and then again when you were at Hollow Bastion you created two nobodies."

"I have...two nobodies?" Sora asked shocked.

"Yup, one of them is Roxas," Axel said, "And the other is Riku."

"What!" Sora gasped, shocked.

"Thats right," Axel said, "I don't know how, but thats what Roxas told me. I'm sorry no one told you until now Sora."

"My dream..." Sora gasped, "But why does Roxas want to kill me? If he's my nobody, wont that mean he'll die with me?"

"I don't know," Axel said shrugging, "I wasn't told much about it, but some how Riku's different then other nobodies."

"Different...?" Sora began, but he was cut off by the crows nest.

"Land ho!" called a voice from the crows nest.

Sora and Axel both stood up and ran to the edge of the deck. Leaning over the side, they saw a dark rock face approaching the ship.

"Excellent," they heard a voice behind them say. Turning around they saw Jack Sparrow standing behind them grinning as they pulled into a small bay. "Welcome to Ilsa de Muerta lads." he said cheerily, "I hope you're ready for a fight." Jack turned to the crew who were lined up, awaiting instruction. "Young Mr. Turner, Sora, his...er...little friend and I will go a shore." Jack said, addressing the crew, then turning to join Will, Sora and Axel in the row boat that had been lowered for them.

"Sir, what if the worst should happen?" Mr. Gibbs called to them as they rowed away.

"Keep to the code," Jack yelled, before the boat was swallowed up by the thick fog that was rolling in.

"What code is Gibbs supposed to keep to if the worst should happen?" Sora asked worriedly.

"Pirates code," Jack replied smiling, "Any man that falls behind, is left behind."

"I guess theres no honor amongst thieves," Axel said sarcastically, leaning back against the side of the small row boat.

"No, theres not," Will said coldly, "Whats you plan once we get in there Jack?"

"Well, you, Sora and er...Sora's friend, sneak around behind Barbossa. I'll distract him, and you grab Elizabeth, savvy?"

"Thats it?" Will asked.

Jack paused for a moment, as if to think. "Yeah thats it." He said, rowing the boat through the mouth of a cavern.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elizabeth stood atop a large mound of treasure, accompanied by Barbossa and his tall, blond friend. In front of her lay a sea worn stone chest, filled with coins identical to the coin Barbossa had taken from her.

"What now?" she asked with a scared look.

"Now we wait Miss. Turner," Barbossa said angrily, "We wait for this friend of yours to show himself."

"But why do you want Sora? He's just a boy!" Elizabeth said.

"Oh, he's much more then that Miss," Luxord said smiling, "He is the chosen one, the keyblade master."

"The what!" Elizabeth asked confused.

"All you need to know Miss is that it is important that I catch him," Luxord said, giving Elizabeth a warm smile. Elizabeth glared back at Luxord with her most livid look.

"Well you wont catch him," Elizabeth said arrogantly, "both him and Will will stop you."

"I'm glad you have so much confidence in them," Luxord said, still smiling, "But unfortunately, I'm afraid its wasted. I will catch the key bearer, and then I'll kill off your pathetic little boyfriend, he knows to much."

Sora saw Elizabeth launch herself at Luxord and start punching him from his hiding place behind a rock.

"Woah," he heard Axel mutter next to him, "And she's the one we're supposed to be saving?"

"I've had it! I've had it with wobbly-legged, rum soaked PIRATES!" they heard her shriek as two of Barbossa's crewmen wrestled her off Luxord.

"Yeah, she's the one." Sora muttered glancing around and making sure that hadn't been seen. "Ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Axel said, summoning his chakram.

Sora nodded, and they both charged forward into the mass of loitering pirates.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Riku was sitting in his favorite chair when Roxas came bursting into the room.

"Luxord's back!" He shouted, "Lord Xemnas has called a meeting."

Following Roxas out of the room, Riku ran after him down hall after hall until they reached the study. Taking a minute to fix their black coats, they knocked on the door and entered. The study was filled with all the remaining members of the Organization, Xigbar, Xaldin, Saïx, and a battered, bloody looking Luxord. Demyx was missing from the group of black coats, and Riku realized sadly that he must have been eliminated.

Xemnas was sitting in his usual spot behind the desk, with his usual relaxed look. Roxas and Riku bowed and joined the rest of the members around the desk.

"Now that everyone's here," Xemnas said quietly, shooting Riku and Roxas a look, "We can begin out meeting. We have been working towards this for many years and tonight our plan is finally completed. Tonight, we have collected all the hearts we need to prepare Kingdom Hearts for the key bearers heart."

There was little rejoicing in the room, but a wave of excitement passed through the small group as Xemnas called for silence.

"We have Luxord and his research to thank for this," Xemnas said calmly, nodding towards Luxord, "Tonight we welcome him back from Port Royal as a hero."

There was a smattering of light applause, and the room fell silent once again.

"We shall now begin on the second half of our plan," Xemnas said, a glint of excitement in his eye, "You all know your assignments, you are dismissed."

One by one, the black coated members left the room until there were only four left. Roxas glared at satisfied looking Luxord, while Riku sat quietly off to the side.

"Do you know what the definition of a hero is Luxord?" Roxas asked angrily, "Someone who gets other people killed."

At this Luxord spat out a pained laugh, "Well thats what we wanted in this case isn't it?"

"Stop it you two," Xemnas said calmly from his desk, "Luxord, mission report."

"Right, I'm sorry sir," Luxord said nodding his head, "Well, as you can see, I had a spot of trouble at the very end, but all went according to plan beyond that."

"What _did _happen to you?" Riku asked, eying the bruses that were starting to form on Luxord's face.

"Well, lets see," Luxord said, "First I got jumped by an angry young woman, then the key bearer and Axel rushed in and started killing off the pirates, and then they started attacking me when some friends of theirs had shown up."

At this Roxas started to snicker, "You got beaten up by a girl!"

"She surprised me," Luxord muttered defensively.

"Axel? So he's joined forces with the key bearer now?" Xemnas asked concerned.

"Yes, but the key bearer seems to have gotten stronger," Luxord said, trying to ignore Roxas's constant snickers, "Even though Axel was with him, he only attacked me for a little bit and then left the key bearer to fight me alone. He's gotten much stronger, I was only able to escape."

"Hmm...You have done well Luxord," Xemnas said, "You are dismissed, go get yourself cleaned up."

Luxord stood up and gave Xemnas a pained bow and then limped out of the room. As soon as Luxord had left, Roxas burst out laughing.

"What a goon!" he shouted, laughing uncontrollably, "He nearly gets killed on his own mission! And then gets beat up by a girl!"

"Shut up you fool," Xemnas said coolly to Roxas, "I don't like this business with the key bearer, he is becoming dangerous."

"Do you really think he's gotten stronger?" Riku asked, while Roxas tried to pull himself together.

"Yes, I'm afraid he has," Xemnas said worriedly, "I'm also worried about what our little traitor has told him. If he finds out all of out plans it could mean the end."

"Well you won't have to worry about that," Roxas said, still chuckling, "I made sure that Axel never learned all of our plans, he only knows about me and Riku."

"What does he know about me?" Riku asked surprised.

"Oh, nothing, I'll tell you later," Roxas said dodging Riku's question, "Anyway, its not enough for the key bearer to stop us, I assure you."

"Good, but I want to test the key bearer's strength," Xemnas said, "Riku, you are to depart for Radiant Garden immediately."

"Yes sir," Riku said, bowing to Xemnas, "Will that be all?"

"Yes, you two are dismissed."

Both Riku and Roxas bowed again and left the study, leaving Xemnas to his own thoughts.

"What will you do next, key bearer?" He thought, his brow furrowed with worry, "What surprises do you have in store for us?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack awoke with a pounding headache, his vision blurred. Slowly sitting up he saw that he was lying by the water in a cavern. The last thing he had remembered was an oar swinging towards his head.

"Bloody kids," he grumbled, standing up and stumbling towards the main treasure cavern. The sight that met his eyes made his jaw drop. The cavern was littered with the bodies of Barbossa's crew, and at the top of the treasure pile, draped over the chest of Cortes, was Barbossa himself. "It looks like they figured out how to lift the curse," he mumbled astonished, going over to Barbossa and poking him.

Barbossa's arm started moving where Jack had poked it and Jack sprang back, drawing his pistol. Barbossa's arm moved again, and then his pet monkey wriggled out from underneath it. "Oh, its only you mate," Jack said, lowering his pistol.

The monkey stared at Jack for a moment, then grabbed a coin out of the chest and started to scamper away.

"Monkey!" Jack yelled, chasing after the monkey and firing his pistol.

Jack chased the monkey into a cavern that overlooked the bay in front of the entrance to the caverns. Jack stopped and stared at the empty bay, "Where's my bloody ship!" he bellowed, searching the horizon for any sign of a ship.

"Bloody pirates!" he mumbled, wading into the water and started to swim out into the bay.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sora and Axel stood on the dock, bidding goodbye to Will and Elizabeth.

"Are you sure that thing can take you home?" Will asked skeptically, eying Axel's Gummi ship.

"Yeah, it will get us back to where we came from," Sora reassured Will, smiling.

"Thank you for everything," Elizabeth said, "Especially for rescuing me."

She stepped forward and kissed both Sora and Axel on the cheek. Axel's face turned almost as red as his hair and he was rendered momentarily speechless. Sora laughed at Axel's reaction and turned to Will, who was looking surly.

"I helped too you know!" He said defensively, "Even if you two knocked me out for half of the fight!"

"Yeah, we're really sorry about that," Sora said sheepishly, "But we both agreed that it was probably a trap, and we didn't want you getting involved right away in case something happened." Axel managed to nod, his face still bright red. "But its a good thing you woke up when you did, otherwise we could have never broken the curse."

"Yes Will, you really did save us all," Elizabeth said, smiling and squeezing Will's hand, "Thank you." she said, pulling him into a full on kiss.

Sora heard a strangled noise behind him and turn to see Axel fuming with anger.

"I'll be on the ship," he muttered, walking off sulking.

Sora laughed again and turned back to Will and Elizabeth, who were both looking equally embarrassed.

"So, do you think Jack's alright?" Sora asked worriedly, "We did just leave him unconscious on the Ilsa de Muerta."

"Who cares?" Will answered angrily, "He was going to sell us out to Barbossa! Why do you think he was so keen on keeping you aboard the Interceptor?"

"I wasn't going to sell you out to Barbossa mate," Came a voice from the end of the dock, "I was going to use you to get the Black Pearl from Barbossa and then rescue with it. I thought I told you not to do anything stupid."

All three of them turned to see a wet looking Jack Sparrow clamber up on the dock.

"Bloody boat," he muttered, "So many bloody holes you would think the Swiss made it."

Sora looked over to see the mast of a once floating boat poking out of the water behind Jack.

"How the blazes did you get of that island?" Will asked astonished.

"Sea turtles mate," Jack said grinning, "Two of them, tied to me feet."

Sora laughed at the dumbfounded expression on Will's face and turned to get on the Gummi ship.

"I should be going," he said, "I'm sure my sister is waiting for me to return. Thanks for everything, Will, Elizabeth, I'll never forget you guys."

"Oy! What about me!" Jack said angrily.

"I'll never forget you either, _Captain_ Jack," Sora said smiling.

"Will we ever see you again?" Elizabeth asked as Sora was halfway through the hatch.

"No, probably not, but I'll always be in your hearts," Sora said, turning to smile at his friends, "And you'll always be in mine."

Sora waved and then closed the hatch to the Gummi ship. Climbing up to the cockpit, he took his seat next to Axel.

"You ready to go home?" Axel asked, starting the engine.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Sora said, "I guess its time for me to stop running away and start fighting, huh?"

"Looks like," Axel said, steering the ship into the evening sky. "What are you going to fight for?"

"Well," Sora said smiling at Axel, "I think I'm going to fight for a better future."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Blabbing:**

Wooo! This was a long one to write. So, much new information has been reveled about Riku and Sora (I'm sorry for that really inarticulate sentence, I'm so fried right now.). And Axel is finally back! Yay! Thank you to those awesome people who review every chapter, you guys ROCK! So, probably no new chapter until next weekend, seeing as I still have to make a costume and then its the con and then School (Joy...not...). So hang in there, I'll try to get another chapter done ASAP. Please review! Thanks for reading!


	16. Showdown at Hollow Bastion

**Blade of Light: Showdown at Hollow Bastion**

**Disclaimer: I don't own kingdom hearts, but I do own a Roxas plushie!**

**Author's note:**

Hm...only about...two or three chapters left...or four or five, depending on how I decide to end the story. Mwahaha, a happy or a sad ending? I do not know. I'm uber sorry for not updating in ages, I feel so bad! I started school three weeks ago and its been hell ever since. Goddamn Junior year is hard! And then I got sick, which was lovely because that meant I could finally finish this chapter for you all. Thank you for being patient, enjoy and review!

**The story so far: **(Because its been ages since the last chapter)

Sora and Axel left Port Royal after a victory over the Organization, but was it really a victory? The Organization seems to be all to pleased with the turn out, and have sent Riku to Hollow Bastion to test Sora's strength. Riku, who was revealed to be Sora's nobody, is starting to doubt his feelings towards Roxas and the Organization, will he fight Sora once again? Or will he finally realize his feelings towards Sora?

* * *

"_...You don't know what its like to feel empty inside, to know that something is missing, and no matter how much you try to cover it up with fake emotion, its still there, a great empty hole...I've already excepted my fate..."_

"_I have...two nobodies?"_

"_Yup, on of them is Roxas, and the other...is Riku."_

"What are you still doing up?"

Sora looked up from the spot he had been staring at on the kitchen table to see Axel leaning against the door frame. It had been three day's since they had returned from Port Royal and Sora hadn't been sleeping much. Kairi had heard Sora scream one night after he had gone to bed, and was starting to get worried, but when she asked him what was wrong she just got a silent shrug.

In fact, it seemed that was the response he was giving most of the household since he turned up on the door step with the red haired Organization member. The only person he actually talked to still was the strange red haired boy, and even that was a rare occurrence.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about what you told me," Sora said resuming his table staring.

"What? About Roxas and Riku?" Axel asked, leaning over Sora and staring at the spot that he seemed to be transfixed by, "There's nothing there you know, you're not going to find answers in this table."

"About Riku being my nobody," Sora said, seeming to ignore Axel's comment about the table, "Why is he my nobody? You have to know more then what you've already told me, please Axel, I have to know."

"Why do you assume that I'm hiding something from you?" Axel asked sitting down opposite Sora.

"Because you have to know more then just the fact that he's my nobody and Roxas hates my guts, I could have told you that much." Sora said impatiently.

Axel sighed, "Ok, I don't know everything, but I can tell you what I do know. Roxas was created as an experiment by Ansem, to study the way hearts work. Now, I'm not sure on all the details, but he wasn't treated well, so, he escaped from Ansem's lab in Hollow Bastion, and ended up on Destiny Islands, where the two of you became friends."

"Roxas was an...experiment?" Sora asked, confused.

"Yes, Ansem created him as a model of you, to experiment on those pure of heart. Don't ask me how Ansem knew about you, 'cause I have no idea, but he knew that the Keyblade Master had to be someone with a strong heart. Roxas must have secretly read Ansem's notes on the heart and his research, because he knew about the doors to the heart of the worlds and he also knew about you." Axel cleared his throat and continued, "He knew that you could bring him the infinite power he needed to take over the universe and get revenge on everyone in it. He wanted power over everyone who ever did anything to him, so to do that, he had to somehow obtain your heart and use its power to unleash chaos unto the worlds. It would also mean that you, being the only one who could stop him, would be out of the way."

"My dream!" Sora exclaimed, "It wasn't just a dream, it was a memory!"

"Was that why you screamed last night?" Axel asked.

"Yes...I had that dream again, no, it was a memory, of Roxas."

"Thats right," Axel said, leaning back in his chair, "He gets you to open the door, doesn't he?"

"Yeah..." Said Sora slowly, "And then Roxas is surrounded by a swirling dark mist, I try to help him, but then I feel this searing pain in my chest. I look down, and I'm being swallowed by the darkness. Little by little, it starts to engulf me, and I feel like my heart is being ripped out. I struggle to stay conscious and beg him to help me, but he only laughs, his eyes eclipsed by darkness. Then, I start to slip into the darkness my self, but before it engulfs me completely, I see a blinding light and my whole body becomes warm, and slowly the darkness begins to ebb away. I can hear Riku calling to me, and when I'm finally able to see again, I'm lying in the secret place, with Riku's standing above me smiling. And then I wake up." Sora quickly wiped away the tears that had started to form in his eyes, "But what does it mean? Why haven't I remembered it until now?" He asked, slamming his fist on the table, frustrated.

"Thats how Riku became your nobody Sora, don't you see?" Axel said, smiling kindly at the brown haired boy, "You were on the brink of slipping into the darkness, and giving up your heart, but you heart is to strong to be destroyed that easily. It created Riku to save you, he is the light in your heart, the light that will never let you give in. He has always pushed you to become better, to be stronger, even when you lost to him, he pushed you to beat him next time. He became your rival, am I right?"

Sora nodded quietly, not meeting Axel's eyes.

"As, for why you haven't remembered it until now, I can't say. Memory's a complex thing, almost as complex as the heart, and the two are always intertwined. It may have been that your heart locked the memory away to protect you from the darkness, or maybe it was such a traumatic event that you blocked it out. What ever the reason, the minute you became a heartless in Hollow Bastion, the seal on those memories was broken, and ever since Roxas was recreated, you have been slowly regaining your memories of him and visa-versa."

They sat in silence as Sora tried to process everything he had just learned about his best friend.

"Axel," Sora said quietly, "You lied to me, you said that all you knew was that Roxas and Riku were my nobodies, but you knew the whole story all along, didn't you?"

At this, Axel shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "Well, maybe not the whole story, but enough of it to be a threat to the Organization. Although, they don't know that I know that much. But I didn't intend on leaving you in the dark Sora, it wasn't the right time to tell you the whole story when we first talked. Do you think that if I had told you everything back then, that you would have been able to fight Luxord full heartedly? Do you think you would have been able to keep a clear head?"

"No," Sora admitted dejectedly, "But that guy, Luxord, he said that it didn't matter if I won, because the real victory would go to the Organization. What did he mean by that?"

Axel stood up so suddenly that his chair fell to the ground with a loud clattering noise. "Why didn't you say something earlier!" He gasped out, looking frightened.

"I didn't think it mattered," Sora said, scared by the look on Axel's face, "What's going on Axel?"

"They must have completed Kingdom Hearts," Axel said, a horrified expression dawning on his face, "It all makes sense now, they used you to collect the hearts they needed to complete it."

"What!" Sora asked, a look of horror creeping onto his face, "You mean all this time, every heartless or nobody I killed..."

"Their heart was sent to Kingdom Hearts," Axel said, completing the sentence for him, "Thats why they insisted on leading you on for so long, to use your Keyblade to complete Kingdom Hearts."

"No," Sora said horrified, "They haven't completed it yet, their still missing two very important things."

"Whats that?" Axel asked confused.

"Our hearts, they still need me and Kairi's hearts," Sora said gravely, "Once they have those, then they will have completed Kingdom Hearts. This isn't a game of cat and mouse anymore, they're done toying with our emotions, it a battle for life or death now, not just for me, but for the whole universe. I can't afford to lose again, because if I lose this time, its all over."

* * *

_Roxas could feel the power of the darkness coursing through him. Laughing he turned to the brown haired boy who was writhing on the floor, calling out desperately to him._

_'Give into the darkness Sora,' Roxas said, eyes eclipsed in darkness, 'give me your power, and give me your heart!'_

_Roxas laughed again, as the small brown haired boy disappeared in the swirling darkness. He could feel the boy's heart starting to give into the darkness, when he was blinded by a painful white light. Screaming, he could feel it flowing through him, ripping apart his body._

_'Aaaggghhh!' he screamed, trying desperately to get away from the light._

Roxas sat up abruptly in the dark room, gasping for breath. He could feel a cold sweat trickle down his bare back as he sat in his bed shaking, his knees pulled up to his chest. Reaching a hand out, he tried to find the comforting warmth of Riku, but he was only met by cold empty sheets.

"Riku?" he whimpered, casting his eyes around the room for any sign of the boy. But the room was dark and empty, and for once Roxas wished that he hadn't let Riku get so involved in his plan, for now he was cold and alone.

Roxas had always hated being alone, that was why he had made sure to surround himself with friends where ever he went. He had made sure to make friends with all the kids on Destiny Islands, and then again in Twilight Town, that way he would always have someone to be with. Even in the Organization he had made two good friends, but now Axel was a marked traitor and Demyx had been eliminated.

Sighing, Roxas hugged his knees closer in a failed attempt to stop shaking. Closing his eyes, he watched the dream play over again, and when the blinding light blinded him for a second time he opened his eyes.

"Damn that Sora," he thought, rubbing his eyes and getting out of bed, "How could ones heart have that much light?" Roxas crossed the room, picking up his coat off Riku's favorite chair and pulling it on before he sat down. Pulling a faded, beat up note book from his coat pocket, he flipped through pages of detailed notes until he reached the page he was looking for.

"All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, grows, consumes it. Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness."

Roxas stared at the words that Ansem had written, and frowned. Ansem, the great philosopher, the great scientist, how could a man who was so revered be so wrong? If all hearts are consumed by darkness, how is it possible that one boy could have enough light in his heart to create something like Riku? How could one boy's heart be strong enough to carry on the way Sora had after all that the Organization had done to him? Could a heart really be that strong?

Realizing that he was sitting in the dark, he searched around for a light to turn on. That was another thing thing he hated, the dark. When there were others around, he pretended that he was more comfortable in the dark, but when he was alone, he couldn't stand it. It brought back to many bad memories from the days that he was Ansem's play thing, his "experiment".

Finding that there was no light in Riku's room, Roxas went back to the chair and sat down nervously. He could feel the coldness of the room seeping into him, chilling him to the bone. The room seemed be be darker then before, Roxas flicked his eyes around nervously. Yes, the room was definitely getting darker now, Roxas shuddered as the darkness began to close in on him. He could see shadows begin to appear, slowly rising from the ground, their yellow eyes barely shining through the thick darkness. The room was turning into the basement of the castle in Hollow Bastion, the walls turning into the smooth dark walls that had imprisoned him for so many years.

Roxas closed his eyes, whimpering, hoping that the shadows would all go away, but when he opened them, he saw that the shadows had begun to close in on him. Roxas curled himself into a small ball, hoping they wouldn't see him, but his attempts were in vain. One of the shadows launched its self towards Roxas, ready to attack, and suddenly, the air was full of shadows, all of them bearing down on the blond haired boy.

Roxas braced himself, waiting for the shadows to tear him apart, but when the pain didn't come he slowly lifted his head and looked around the room. The smooth dark walls were once again the familiar walls of Riku's room and a soft blue light was shining through the window from the city below. Roxas sat shaking, his mind buzzing with questions. What had happened? Were the shadows really there, or were they just a figment of his imagination? Why was he suddenly remembering his days as Ansem's experiment?

Deciding that it was all from a lack of sleep, Roxas got up from the chair and crawled back into the bed, wishing that Riku was there to protect him. Making sure that his head was well hidden under a pillow, Roxas fell into a troubled sleep.

* * *

"Pathetic," Riku muttered, standing outside the door to the safe house, "Do they honestly think that they don't need protection?"

It was early morning and the boy was the sole occupant of the street. Looking around to make sure that no one was around, Riku approached the door to the safe house and was surprised to find it unlocked.

"Wha--?" He gasped astonished, "They even leave their door unlocked? This is unbelievable! Its got to be some sort of trap, nothing is this easy."

Regarding the door cautiously, Riku gave it a soft nudge with his hand and stood back, waiting for someone or something to attack him. But when nothing happened, Riku approached the door and stuck his head in cautiously. He saw a quaint entry hall that seemed to lead to a small, cozy kitchen.

Slipping quietly into the entry hall, he closed the door carefully and proceeded into the kitchen, where he saw a small set of stairs leading to an upper level. Forgetting about the hypothetical trap that he might be walking into, Riku ascended the stairs quickly and found himself standing in front of a door at the end of the hall. He felt drawn to the room and without thinking, he opened the door and quietly slipped into the room.

The room he had entered was small, but cozy, just like the other parts of the house Riku had already seen. The floor was littered with clothes, and leaning against the wall to his right was the keyblade.

"Key...blade?" Riku muttered to himself, "That must mean..." Riku's eyes fell upon a bed that had been pushed against the wall under the window. "Sora."

Riku walked over to the side of the bed and looked down smiling at the younger boy, who had fallen asleep in his clothes. He watched as the younger boy's chest rose and fell peacefully, as if he had no care in the world.

"What should I do?" he thought, sitting down carefully next to the sleeping boy and resting his head in his hands, "I've been sent to fight you, but in my heart, I know that I can't bear the thought of causing you more pain." Realizing what he had thought, Riku let out a small laugh, "ha, in my heart, if I had a heart...but either way, I can't do it. I realize now, that you were never the one who I was mad at, you weren't the one who betrayed me." Riku pulled off the blindfold that covered his eyes, and leaned over the sleeping Sora, "I don't know what's going on anymore," Riku whispered, "but I do know, that I love you Sora."

Riku leaned down and kissed the sleeping boy on the mouth. He could feel the boy starting to stir and heard him let out a small moan. Then, he heard something that made his blood run cold, the sound of the front door opening and the voices of two people entering the kitchen.

"Riku?"

Looking down, he saw that the Sora had actually woken up and was looking up at him surprised. Standing up quickly, Riku hastily tied the blindfold back on and ran from the room. Hurtling down the stairs, he flung himself into the kitchen, where, to his horror, he saw Kairi and Tifa back from their early morning shopping.

"Riku?" Kairi gasped surprised, dropping the eggs she was holding, "What are you doing here?"

"Damn it!" Tifa muttered, "Kairi, go to Sora's room and don't leave it until someone comes and gets you, do you understand? I'll take care of this guy."

Tifa launched her self at Riku, who was still looking horrified at the situation. He noticed her just in time and was able to dodge her punch, but was thrown against the wall when she surprised him with a kick.

"Kairi, go now!" She yelled, not taking her eyes off Riku as he quickly pulled himself to his feet.

Tifa launched herself at Riku again, trying to buy time for Kairi to get up the stairs, but Riku had already come up with a plan. Dodging Tifa once again, he swung out his arm, and hit her in stomach sending her flying across the kitchen, where she hit the wall hard and lay still.

Riku straightened up to see Kairi standing off to the side looking scared. Riku walked over to her, grabbed her arm and had started dragging her towards the front door, when he was hit hard in the face with her hand.

"Riku, what the hell do you think your doing?" She demanded, glaring at him.

"I'll explain later, but right now we have to get out of here." Riku said calmly, massaging his face where Kairi had hit him. "Please, you have to trust me, I'm not going to hurt you."

"No! I'm not going anywhere with you!" Kairi said, trying to free her arm from Riku's grasp, "If you don't let me go, I'll scream."

Riku quickly clamped a hand over Kairi's mouth, much to Kairi's dislike, "I don't doubt that, but I can't have you waking up the whole house. Now, I'll take my hand off your mouth if you promise to come with me calmly and quietly, do we have a deal? I promise I don't want to hurt you or Sora."

Kairi glared at him, but slowly nodded her head and stopped struggling. Riku smiled and took his hand off her mouth, but kept a strong grip on her arm.

"Leave her alone!" Yelled a voice from the stairs.

Riku looked up to see Sora standing at the bottom of the stairs, ready to fight.

"Let her go!" He yelled again, glaring at Riku.

"You want her back?" Riku said, smiling at Sora, "Then come and get her, we'll be waiting in the castle, I'm sure you remember where we were waiting last time, don't you Sora?" Riku summoned a dark portal behind him, and backed into it, still holding Kairi. "And come alone."

Sora watched them disappear into the portal, a mixture of anger and curiosity filling his heart. What did Riku want and why had he been his bedroom? Sora blushed when he remember what Riku had been doing when he had woken up. What was going on? Why hadn't he taken his heart when he was sleeping?

Sora noticed Tifa lying unmoving on the floor across the kitchen.

"Tifa!" He said, running over to her lifeless form and falling to his knees. "Please Tifa, please wake up." He gently shook her shoulders, but she didn't stir. Panicking, he got to his feet and ran up to Clouds room. "Cloud!" He yelled, banging on the door, "Cloud wake up, Tifa's in trouble."

Clouds door flung open and Sora was almost knocked over as Cloud came barreling out of his room.

"Whats wrong?" He demanded, "Where is she?"

"Down in the kitchen, there's been a fight."

Cloud took off down the hallway, Sora jogging behind him. When the entered the kitchen, Cloud went immediately over to Tifa and sank to his knees.

"Who did this?" He asked, holding he head in his lap.

"It...it was Riku," Sora said, looking worriedly down at Cloud, "Is she going to be ok?"

"I think so, she's just been knocked unconscious. I'll have Leon take a look at her when he gets up." Cloud carefully picked up the unconscious Tifa and started towards the stairs, "I'll keep an eye on her for now. But what's this about Riku attacking her?"

"I...I don't know," Sora said, looking at the ground, "He was in my room when I woke up this morning, and then he ran out when he heard Kairi and Tifa come home. I heard Tifa yelling, so I grabbed my keyblade and came down, and when I got here, he was kidnapping Kairi."

"What!" Cloud yelled, "We have to save her! Who knows what will happen if he takes her back to the Organization! Wait here, I'll wake up the others."

"No," Sora said, "No, I'm going alone."

"Sora, you can't, you'll be killed, its what he wants you to do. Your walking right into his trap."

"No, he doesn't want to hurt me, and he doesn't want my heart. I don't know what he wants, but I know that I'll be safe. Please Cloud, let me go."

Cloud gave Sora a skeptical look, but nodded and said, "Alright, but be careful, he's not to be trusted. Remember, he still works for the Organization. If your not backk in two hours we'll come after you."

Sora nodded and raced out the door towards the castle, hoping beyond hope that he was right.

* * *

"Will you stop pacing?" Riku asked, glaring at Kairi, "You're making me nervous."

They were waiting in the large grand entry hall of Hollow Bastion, the place where Sora had come to save them from the Organization. Upon arriving Riku had released Kairi and gone to sit on the edge of the fountain, Kairi had been pacing angrily back and forth ever since.

"You shouldn't have kidnapped me then!" She retorted angrily, still pacing, "Why did you kidnap me anyway?"

"Well, I wanted a chance to talk to Sora alone, and this seemed to be the best way to get him on his own." Riku said calmly, as Kairi sent him death glares, "You might as well sit down, it might be a while."

Kairi turned to Riku and gave him a cold look, but came to sit next to him on the fountain.

"Why do you wear that blindfold?" She asked after they had sat in silence for a few minutes, looking closely at his face.

Riku turned away, with a frown on his face. "To hide the monster I have become."

"Riku," Kairi said sympathetically, putting a hand on his shoulder, "Your not a monster."

"Aren't I?" Riku asked, turning to look at Kairi, his voice filled wit pain, "I've caused him so much pain, I killed his friend, I broke his heart, and I hurt him countless times. I am a monster Kairi, the darkness has made me one. Can you honestly say I'm not a monster after everything I've done to Sora?"

"Yes," Kairi said, reaching out and gently pulling the blindfold off Riku's face, revealing two shocking blue eyes filled with tears, "Because you can still cry for him." Kairi smiled at Riku as he hastily wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve. "Riku, why did you come here?"

"I...I was sent here by the Organization to fight Sora," Riku said, looking at the ground, "But when I saw him, I just...I couldn't do it. I don't want to fight him anymore, I don't know what's happening to me. For a while, I was so full of hatred that I couldn't see any light. But, now, I don't know who's side I'm on, the Organization's or Sora's. I'm a nobody Kairi, I have no heart, and yet, I love Sora."

At this Kairi giggled, "Well its about time one of you admitted it."

Riku stood up, taken aback at Kairi's reaction, "Its not funny Kairi! Nobodies aren't supposed to have feelings, we don't have hearts."

"How many times do I have to tell you," came a voice from the other side of the hall, "That you _do_ have a heart Riku?" Riku and Kairi looked up to see Sora standing in the doorway, holding his keyblade and smiling.

"How long have you been standing there?" Riku asked, looking embarrassed.

"Long enough," Said Sora.

He crossed the hall, wrapped his arm's around the older boy's neck and kissed him long and hard. At first Riku was shocked by the sudden kiss, but after a few moments relaxed against the younger boy and pulled him closer. After a few minutes of heavy kissing, both boys broke apart, gasping for breath.

"Sora..." Riku began, still trying to catch his breath. But Sora put a finger to Riku's lips before he could say anything more. Riku looked down at the brown haired boy and saw that he was crying.

"Riku," Sora said, burying his face in the older boy's chest, "I can't believe its really you. I looked for you, I looked everywhere for you."

"C'mon Sora. You've got to pull yourself together." Said the older boy, wrapping his arm's around Sora and comforting him.

"Why Riku? Why did you join the Organization?" Sora sobbed, tightening his hand into a fist against Riku's chest. "Why did you kill Tron? Why did you kiss Roxas?"

"I...I thought you had forgotten about me." Riku said looking away.

"What? Riku, I would...I would never..."

"When I was trapped in that dungeon, the only thing that kept me going was thinking that you were out there somewhere trying to find me. But, then, one day, I was taken to see Xemnas and he had this magic crystal. He showed me you, sitting around a table surrounded by friends, looking like you didn't have a care in the world. After that, it wasn't hard to embrace the darkness, to hate you, to believe that you really had forgotten about me."

"Riku..." Sora said quietly, "I never stopped looking for you, I never forgot you. What ever they told you, its not true."

"I was blinded enough by the darkness that I believed them. Who knows? Maybe I belong with them Sora, after what I've done I shouldn't be allowed to live, to love, to be with you. I'm a monster, a nobody, I have no heart." Riku stepped away from the younger boy, not willing to meet his eye's.

"No, Riku...no..." Sora said desperately, falling to his knees, "Don't leave me again."

"Sora...you deserve better then me," Riku said turning away, tears starting to form in his eye's, "I've hurt you so much, I'm...sorry, I shouldn't have come here."

Riku started to walk away across the hall, heading for the exit, his shoes making a hollow clunking on the floor. They reflected how he felt, but he knew that this was the best thing for Sora, if he stayed with him, he would only bring more pain and suffering to the young boy. He was so caught up in his misery that he didn't hear Kairi coming up behind him.

"Riku you bastard!" Kairi yelled, catching up to him. Riku turned around to see Kairi's fist coming right at his face. When it connected he was thrown to the ground, where he sat not looking Kairi in the eye, his nose gushing blood.

"Kairi no!" He heard Sora yell mortified. Riku braced himself for the second punch, but it never came. Looking up, he saw that the small boy was doing his best to hold back his infuriated sister, who looked ready to kill Riku.

"Is this what you came here for!" She screamed at Riku, struggling against her brother's grip, "To break his heart again? You're nothing but a coward! If you really cared about Sora then you wouldn't leave him!"

"Kairi, stop this!" Sora yelled again.

"No, its time he stopped acting like a little emo shit!" She screamed, breaking free of Sora's grasp and grabbing Riku by the front of his jacket and pulling him to his feet. "Do you know what its been like for him this past year? Do you know how hard its been to see him in so much pain and not be able to to anything about it? Do you!"

"No..." Riku mumbled.

"I didn't think so, your to self centered to even begin to realize how people around you feel." Kairi roughly let go of Riku's jacket and turned to her brother, "Come on Sora, lets go home."

Kairi pushed roughly passed Riku and stomped out of the hall leaving Sora and Riku standing alone. Riku tried to meet Sora's eyes, but the brown haired boy wouldn't oblige.

"Sora...I..."

"I...I was mostly surprised to find out that you were my nobody Riku, but I was...I was also very happy. To think, that the one I loved was also a part of me, that they were my light."

"I'm..._your_ nobody?" Riku gasped surprised.

"Yeah, but I guess you don't care." Sora's eyes filled with tears, and he ran out of the hall, leaving a surprised looking Riku standing alone.

"Sora, wait!" Riku called out, but the brown haired boy had already gone. Riku sank to his knees, his tears blending with the slow trickle of blood from his nose, "...I do care..."

* * *

It was raining in the town of Radiant Garden, a cold dark rain that made everything feel dark and dreary. Sora didn't care much though, as he lay face down on his bed, his mind blank. It had already been two days since his encounter with Riku, and he hadn't left his room since coming back from Hollow Bastion.

Sora sighed, rolled over on his back and sat up to look out the window. The world seemed to have lost its color and the usually busy streets were empty, except for a dark figure that was standing out side of the safe house.

"How long has he been there?" Sora idly wondered, not giving the figure a second thought as he turned away from the window and rested his head on his knees.

He heard someone knock on the the door, "Hey, keyblade master, you mind if I come in?"

"What ever," Sora mumbled in the direction of the door.

A spiky red head appeared in the doorway as Axel came into the room.

"What do you want, Axel?" Sora asked, lying down again and looking out the window.

"Oh, nothing really," Axel said in a sing song voice, "Just to tell you that there's someone at the door for you. He looked awfully pitiful standing outside in the rain, but he refused to come in, he just said that he'd made a terrible mistake and he needed to tell you that he was sorry. He was also being sent death glares by your sister, so if I were you I'd get down stairs before she kills the poor thing."

"Well, you can tell him that its too late for apologies," Sora said, his voice choked with tears, "I'm tired of him breaking my heart."

"Very well, I'll sent the poor wretch away." Axel said, mock bowing to Sora and leaving the room.

Sora sighed and rolled back onto his stomach, his face pressed into his pillow. After a few minutes he heard a door slam, and then silence.

"Its for the best," he thought, his tears leaving wet blotches on his pillow.

After a few minutes of silence, he lifted his head, and listened very carefully. He could have sworn he heard someone singing, but for a few minutes it was lost in the endless pounding of the rain. Yes, there it was again, a beautiful and haunting voice drifted up to his window, but who?

Sitting up he looked out the window to see that Riku was standing under his window, singing.

_When you walk away, you don't hear me say._

_Please, oh baby, don't go._

_Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel, tonight, its hard to let it go._

_You've given me, to many things, lately_

_You're all I need, oh oh_

_You smiled at me, and said_

_Don't get me wrong I love you, but does that mean I have to meet your father?_

_When we are older you will understand, what I meant when I said no, I don't think life is quite that simple._

_When you walk away, you don't hear me say._

_Please, oh baby, don't go._

_Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel, tonight, its hard to let it go._

_Hold me, what ever lies beyond this morning, is a little later on._

_Regardless of warnings, the future doesn't scare me at all._

_Nothings like before._

Sora practically ripped the his door of his hinges as he barreled out of his room and down the stairs. He flew through the kitchen, where everyone looked up surprised. He was out the door and into the street, it was pouring but he didn't care as he approached the other boy, who was waiting for him.

"So I finally got you attention," he said, wiping his wet bangs out of his eyes.

"I didn't know you could sing so beautifully," Sora said lamely, looking at the ground.

"Neither did I," Riku said, smiling at the younger boy, "But something told me that if it was for you, I could do anything."

"Riku!" Sora gasped happily, running forward and embracing the older boy.

"Oh, Sora," Riku said, burying his face in Sora's hair, "I'm sorry, I've been such a fool. I should have never said what I did. I...I just didn't want to hurt you again. I was...afraid, I didn't want anything to happen to you, so I thought that if I went back to the Organiztion I could somehow stop them."

"Riku, why do you think you have to suffer alone?" Sora asked gently.

"Because I'm a horrible person," Riku said, tears coming to his eyes, "Kairi was right, all I ever think about is myself, but I love you Sora, and if you somehow believe that I am even the least bit deserving of your love, then I want to spend my time with you if thats what you want."

"Oh Riku, of course thats what I want," Sora said, tears now coming to his eyes, "I love you so much, I can't bear to think of not being with you. Your not a horrible person, you have a heart so light, so pure, you came back to me."

"Sora, I'm your nobody, I don't have a heart."

"Yes, Riku, you do, Axel told me. He said that you are different the other nobodies because somehow, you gained a heart of your own. Maybe its because you were created from such a strong heart, or maybe it was just through always staying by my side, but you do have a heart Riku, a good heart, a kind heart, the heart I feel in love with."

Riku looked down at the smiling boy and kissed him. They stayed that way, not noticing the cold rain that poured down on them, or the small crowed that had gathered in door way of the safe house, because right now, nothing else really mattered.

* * *

**Blabbing:**

Yay, Riku and Sora are finally back together. Sorry if the chapter was a bit random/jumbled, half of it was written while I was sick and on cold meds, so yeah. Hope you enjoyed it, please leave some nifty reviews! Thanks for reading!


End file.
